The Boy with the Bread
by lorinicole
Summary: Peeta Mellark is just a baker's son who has a crush on the mysterious girl with grey eyes... until he has to fight to the death with 23 other tributes, including the very girl he holds so dear.
1. Chapter 1

Part I

"The Tributes"

Chapter One

From the Treaty of Treason:

In penance for their uprising, each district shall offer up a male and female tribute between the ages of 12 and 18 at a public "reaping." These tributes shall be delivered to the custody of the Capitol and then transferred to a public arena where they will fight to the death until a lone victor remains. Henceforth and forevermore this pageant shall be known as "The Hunger Games."

It's reaping day.

Living in a bakery has its perks, such as waking up to the smell of fresh bread just coming out of the oven. Most of District 12 doesn't smell this good, since it is covered in coal dust from the mines.

I rub my eyes and try to focus on the bright sunlight shining through my window. I didn't sleep well last night, but nobody really sleeps that well the night before the reaping. Soon, the 74th Hunger Games will begin.

In a time known as the Dark Days, the districts rebelled against the Capitol, who is in charge of all of the districts. The Capitol won, decimating District 13 in the process, leaving nothing but a smoking wasteland that they like to broadcast on television from time to time to remind us that if they wanted to, the Capitol could destroy us all.

After the war, the Capitol decided to further show its dominance by inititating the Hunger Games to help keep us in line and prevent another uprising. Every year, one boy and one girl are chosen from each district to compete in a televised fight to the death. To qualify, you have to be between the ages of 12 and 18. You get your name put in once for each year you are eligible. This year, I have five entries.

I sit up in bed and look out the window. District 12 is as dull and dreary as always. Panem is divided into thirteen districts, and District 12 isn't one of the nicer ones. Most of the people here are starving. The few that get enough to eat, like my family and me, still don't get anywhere near as good of a life as the people in the nicer districts get, like Districts 1 and 2.

Since we don't have a lot of food in District 12, the Capitol gives us the option of taking out tesserae, which is a year's worth of grain and oil for one person. A person can take tesserae for every person living in their home, but each tessera someone takes out is another time for their name to go into the drawing. Living in a bakery, I've never had to sign up. Even though all we mostly eat is the left over stale bread that doesn't get bought that day, it's far better than what people in the Seam have to endure.

The Seam is the poorest part of District 12. The people who live there are far more malnourished than the people like me who live in town. They can't afford to buy from the town stores like the bakery my father owns, so they usually never get enough food. Most people in the Seam have to sign up for tesserae to provide for their families. I know someone who lives in the Seam. Someone very special to me, even though I doubt she's ever given me a thought. Katniss Everdeen.

Ever since I first saw her sing at school when we were 5, I've had a crush on Katniss. Her singing was the most mesmerizing thing because the birds that were perched outside the window of our classroom stopped chirping just to listen to her. I remember my father saying that her father used to sing as well. My dad knew a lot about her family. He said he wanted to marry her mom, but she married a coal miner instead, which I never understood. Coal miners were never very well-off, and my father was considered wealthy in District 12 because of the bakery. But after seeing Katniss sing, I understood why her mother fell in love with her father. In that moment, I knew. I knew that Katniss Everdeen was special.

I walk downstairs to fresh loaves of bread and tea at the table. Since today is the reaping, my father has allowed us to eat fresh bread, like he does every year. My mother looks frustrated, which doesn't surprise me. My brothers and I rarely do anything right in my mother's eyes. We've had our fair share of bruises to show how "stupid" we are.

"Sit down and eat, Peeta. You three need to be dressed and in the square by two," my mother snaps. I obediently sit down and eat my breakfast. A black eye is the last thing I need today.

After eating, I go back upstairs to bathe and dress. My mother has laid out a white dress shirt and brown pants for me. I put the clothes on, being careful to tuck the shirt in. Everyone looks their best today.

In the square, children are already in line to sign in. After I sign in, I stand with the other 16-year-olds in the square. As more children are filing in, I find that I'm not nervous for myself. My name is only in 5 times, which is basically nothing compared to some of the Seam kids who take tesserae every year to support their families. My father always made sure my two brothers and I had enough to eat so we would never have to take tesserae.

The person I am worried for is Katniss. I'm sure she has taken tesserae out for herself, her mother, and her little sister, Primrose, every year. After her father died in a mine explosion when we were eleven, Katniss seemed to become the breadwinner. She and Prim got so skinny and sick from starvation. I think their mom shut down after her husband died. The last time I saw her was the day of the explosion. Ever since then, I've never seen her in town except for the reaping day every year.

One day, I saw Katniss in my yard rummaging through my trash. It's not uncommon for the starving people of the Seam to dig through our trash. I never thought it was a big deal, but it disgusted my mother. I saw Katniss look up towards my house and I knew my mom was coming out to shoo her away. She started to leave but then collapsed against the tree in my yard.

I knew I wanted to help her somehow, so I went downstairs and looked into the oven. Just as I had hoped, there were two loaves baking perfectly. I started to take them out, but I noticed my mother scowling at me. I knew I could never get these loaves out to her. I look into the oven again, and I get an idea. I knew that if I burned them just enough to be considered unedible to my mother, I could throw them out to Katniss. I go to take the loaves out of the stove, but instead of pulling them out, I push them into the flames. Of course, my mother hit me in the face while calling me stupid and yelled at me to throw the bread out to the pigs since nobody decent will buy burned bread.

I went outside to see Katniss still slumped against the tree, shivering and nearly unconscious. I threw a piece of the bread to the pigs then looked behind me to make sure my mother wasn't watching. I threw the bread in Katniss' direction and she looked at the bread then looked at me. I nodded towards her and went back inside. I instantly felt a pang of regret. Why didn't I take it to her? Now it's probably soggy. Maybe she's too weak to even get up to get the bread.

I go back out to try to help her get up, but she's gone and so is the bread. I smiled, knowing she won't starve tonight.

Ever since she sang in class when we were five, I started watching her walk home every day from school. One day, when we were eleven, I saw her go towards the electrified fence that surrounds the district. Confused, I watched her carefully walk up to it and stand still for a minute. Then, she crawled under the fence. She looked around and then wandered towards the woods. I waited for her to come back, and when she did, she had a bag over her shoulder filled with something. I thought it was plants, but I wasn't sure. I thought about going up to her and asking what she was doing in the restricted part of the district, but I thought better of it. I doubt she even remembers me, and she doesn't seem like the type of person who tells secrets to strangers.

Every day, I would see her venture into the woods, longer and longer each time she went. One day, I saw her walking back with Gale. Gale is tall, broad-shouldered, and he is the topic of the conversations that girls have in school. I don't know much about him other than his father died in the same mine explosion that Katniss' father died in.

I look around the group of 16-year-olds to find Katniss. When I finally see her, I can't take my eyes away. For 11 years, I've watched her go from being a happy, carefree child whose father was her hero to becoming an empty shell, near death after her father died. I watched her heart break every day that she couldn't feed her family, and my heart broke along with hers. Watching her become the strong, independent person she is today has made me admire her that much more. She always looks so beautiful with her long, dark hair and grey eyes. Those eyes that question everything, that look at her little sister with such love.

Everyone gets quiet as Effie Trinket takes the stage and sits in one of the chairs. Effie looks ridiculous, as always. The Capitol fashion is outrageous, ranging from pounds of makeup to over-the-top wigs and outfits. Some of them even have surgery to make their faces and bodies look different.

Today, Effie has a pink wig accompied by a green suit that has the same color as the leaves on my apple tree in the spring. The mayor takes the stage and goes up to the microphone. He gives the same speech he gives every year about the war and how the districts must reap a male and female for the Hunger Games to ensure peace between the districts and the Capitol. It makes no sense to me to use this as a measure of peace, but there is no point in questioning it too much because none of us can do anything about it. The mayor goes on to list the names of the previous Victors from District 12, which only takes a few moments. It's the same list every year because District 12 hasn't won a Hunger Games in 24 years. One of the victors is dead, and the other one is Haymitch Abernathy, who won the 50th Hunger Games. Ever since he won, he's occupied himself in staying beligerently drunk even though he has to be a mentor to the tributes from District 12 each year.

As if on cue, Haymitch staggers onto the stage, looking angry and confused. He tries to hug Effie, who pushes him off with a disgusted look on her face. Nobody likes to associate Haymitch with District 12 because we are already the laughing-stock of the world, and he is just the icing on the humiliation.

The mayor introduces Effie, who prances to the microphone and clears her throat. "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" she trills. I bite my lip to keep from laughing because her wig has shifted to the side because of Haymitch's friendly, drunken hug. She tries to adjust her wig to no avail, sighs, and then beams again. It's time for the main event of the day. The reaping.

"Ladies first!" she exclaims.

She hops over to the bowl with the ladies' names in them. Not Katniss. Not Katniss. Please, not her. Effie reaches in and grabs the first slip she encounters. My heart is racing, desperately hoping the girl I've been in love with for 11 years doesn't have to fight to the death in a battle with the odds stacked against us.

Effie walks back to the microphone, opens the slip and says the name.

Primrose Everdeen.

I know what Katniss is thinking. I've known this girl for 11 years. The most important thing to her has always been her sister, Prim. I know what Katniss is going to do and my heart is broken because of it.

I look over as I see Prim slowly walking up to the stage, tucking the back of her shirt into her skirt. She is so frail. Blonde hair, blue eyes, tiny as can be. I look up at Katniss who is moving out of the crowd towards her sister. No, no, no.

"Prim!" Katniss screams, the desperation clear in her voice. "Prim!"

She goes to Prim and pushes that 12-year-old girl behind her and with a determination in her voice that should intimidate everyone, she says, "I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!"

I put my face in my hands and everything goes silent. I look up after a moment and everyone is looking around confused. Nobody has volunteered from District 12 before so nobody really knows what to do.

"Lovely!" Effie squeals. "But I believe there's a small matter of introducing the reaping winner and then asking for volunteers, and if one does come forth then we, um..." She trails off because she knows about as much as we do on someone volunteering.

The mayor stands. "What does it matter?"

Everyone looks at him, stunned. "What does it matter?" he repeats, irritated.

I can see the look on his face is pained, probably because he knows Katniss. After her father died, she started going to the woods and would sell food to the people in town. My father bought squirrels from her, and I heard that she would sell strawberries to the mayor.

"Let her come forward," he says. He sits back down, clears his throat and looks down at the ground.

"No, Katniss! No! You can't go!" Prim is screaming to her sister.

She is holding onto Katniss with a look in her eyes I will never forget. Katniss has basically been Prim's mother ever since their father died. From what I could tell, their mother stayed at home, even when she was supposed to get a job to provide for her two daughters. So to Prim, she was losing the only person who has been there for her. The person who saved her from starving to death by risking her life every day to go out into those woods and hunt for food. She was losing her sister and she was desperately trying to make her stay.

Katniss says something to Prim and then I see Gale walk up to them. He says something to Katniss before taking Prim to her mother. Katniss takes a deep breath and walks onto the stage. She looks unemotional, uncaring. That's good. The other tributes will see the recap of the reapings tonight and they'll see this strong, intimidating girl from District 12 who volunteered to save her sister.

Effie Trinket is over the moon about all of this drama unfolding. It's obvious that she wants to be assigned to a more exciting district. Districts 1, 2 and 4 have much stronger people who are more prepared for fighting and better fed than we are. We're not allowed to train for the Games before the reapings, but somehow they are usually a lot stronger and in much better shape. Someone from one of those districts usually wins every year. So, of course, Effie would much rather be an escort to a district who can actually win.

"Well, bravo!" she says. "That's the spirit of the Games! What's your name?"

"Katniss Everdeen," she says. If she is nervous or upset right now, I can't tell. She looks strong and unphased by what's just happened.

"I bet my buttons that was your sister. Don't want her to steal all the glory, do we? Come on, everybody! Let's give a big round of applause to our newest tribute!" Effie practically sings with excitement.

Not a single person claps. It is completely silent in the District 12 town square and I'm not surprised in the least bit. Katniss and her sister have always been adored by most people in the district. Her sister, so kind and gentle, and Katniss, so strong and independent. Everyone talks about the Everdeen sisters. Everybody respected her father, and everyone felt the loss of him. So the fact that nobody is clapping is showing her how much we all respect her for what she has gone through and conquered.

Then, one by one, everyone salutes Katniss. I follow suit, touching the three middle fingers of my left hand to my lips, then lifting them in the air. Not many people use it anymore, but every single person does it for her. It means good-bye. It means thank you. It means we admire her for everything she has done.

Katniss looks around at everyone and I can see a glimpse of emotion cross her face. Gratitude, maybe. Then, Haymitch decides to step up to the microphone.

"Look at her. Look at this one!" He puts his arm over her shoulder, which I'm sure grosses her out. He isn't the best smelling person we know.

"I like her! Lots of... spunk!" Then he walks to the front of the stage.

"More than you!" he says. He looks directly into a camera. "More than you!"

It isn't a good thing to taunt the Capitol. He starts to say something else, but he falls off the stage in a slump of drunken embarrassment, unconscious. All of the cameras have turned to Haymitch to capture the hilarity because that's all the Capitol wants. A show.

I see Katniss relax a bit. Probably because no cameras are on her right now. She takes a deep breath and tries to keep the nonchalant look on her face but I see her looking over at Gale, deep in thought.

They take Haymitch away on a stretcher and Effie walks back up to the microphone, practically bouncing from all the excitement. She says that it's time to choose the male tribute. She goes to the bowl with the boys' names and fishes around for a moment before pulling a slip out.

I'm not worried about me, it's usually a kid from the Seam who gets called because of all the extra entries from the tesserae. I can't help but think it is going to be Gale who gets called because I know he's in there a lot from taking out tesserae for each member of his family. I think he has two brothers and a sister, as well as his mother. If he gets called, he can take care of her. Make sure she survives. They spend so much time together, so they're obviously very close. I know that he'll want her to survive.

Effie walks back to the microphone and opens the slip. The name that comes out of her mouth makes my heart stop.

Peeta Mellark.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Oh no. No, no, no! I can't protect her! I bake bread all day... What can I do? I'm so overwhelmed and confused. How can it be me? This has to be a mistake. My name was only in five times! I walk up to the stage and glance up at Katniss. She is staring at me with a wide-eyed look. Does she remember me? I take my place on stage next to Effie. She asks for volunteers, but nobody speaks up. Like I said, nobody volunteers in District 12. Except for Katniss.

Standing on the stage, there are two things I am sure of: I am going to die in that arena and I'm going to protect Katniss to the best of my ability before I do.

The mayor reads the Treaty of Treason but I don't hear a word he's saying. I glance over to see if I can read Katniss' facial expression. Does she remember what I did? Is she happy or sad I was chosen? What's going through her head? I turn away and look straight ahead, trying not to show the emotions that I'm feeling. Fear, sadness, anxiety... I'm sure I'm not doing a very good job. Not many people care that I'm up there. Maybe a few friends and my family. But everyone knew Katniss. I'm sure they'll be rooting for her. I'm rooting for her.

After the mayor reads the Treaty of Treason, he tells us to shake hands. When our hands meet, it warms my heart a bit. I gently squeeze her hand, to let her know she's going to be okay. I'm going to make sure of it. She locks her gaze on me, those grey eyes staring at me, trying to figure out what I'm thinking. She lets go and we face District 12 and the cameras as the anthem plays. After the anthem is over, we are both escorted off the stage.

Peacekeepers, the soldiers for the Capitol, take us into the Justice Building and then lead us each to our own rooms so people can come and say goodbye to us. The first visitors are my mother and brothers. I vaguely wonder where my father is, but I'm sidetracked when I see my brothers. They're both crying, which is completely out of character for them. They sit on either side of me while my mother stands in front of us. She's never been one to be sentimental.

"Nobody is going to look at you twice since you're from District 12. Just lay low, act weak, and don't let them ever think of you as a threat. Then come out swinging when the time is right. Like that Johanna Mason girl from District 5 did one year," my oldest brother, Blaze, said.

"Yeah, just don't get killed or anything... That would be really bad and um.. yeah..." Cole said, frowning.

"Okay. I'll do my best," I say. I don't have the heart to tell them I'm not planning on coming back alive. Katniss is going to survive, not me. I look up at my mother to see if she's going to say anything. She looks deep in thought, her brow furrowed.

"You know, District 12 might finally have a winner this year. She's a survivor, that one..." she says quietly.

It doesn't surprise me that she isn't showing any sadness that her youngest son is going into the Games. What surprises me is that she's saying that about Katniss. I thought she disliked her. Hated her, even. But apparently even she has noticed how hard Katniss has been working to provide for her starving family.

I just clear my throat and we sit in silence until they are taken away so my next visitor can come say goodbye, but I'm surprised at who walks through the door. When the door opens, Gale walks into the room with a look of desperation on his face.

"You have to help her. She's strong, so strong. But people are going to notice that. They're going to go after her. You have to convince her to lay low and stay quiet. She hates the Capitol. She's not going to keep her mouth shut about how depraved they are. You tell her that she has to come back for her family. I know she thinks she has no chance, but I know that you've noticed her. You've noticed her fire. Don't let it burn out, Peeta," Gale pleads.

The peacekeeper comes in and motions for Gale to leave.

"I'll keep her safe, Gale," I tell him. "I promise."

Gale nods grimly and leaves the room. A few moments later, my father walks into the room and sits down next to me.

"Listen, Peeta. I'm sure you're thinking about helping the girl. Anyone with eyes can see how you feel about her. I know you're the kind of person who can't be talked out of something. You take after me on that. It's not going to be easy for me to tell you to do what you want to do, because that means losing my youngest son, and that's not something I'll ever be okay with. As your father, I want you to fight until the very end. Whether that is for her or for yourself, I can't tell you. I love you and I always will. Don't lose yourself in all of this madness, you understand? You do your very best and you will be a winner to me, regardless of what happens."

All of the emotions I've been holding in since they called Prim's name just pour out. I start crying and I hug my father for probably the last time. I've never seen him so emotional and I know it's because he knows me better than everyone. He knows how I feel about Katniss. He knows that I'm going to die to save her.

The peacekeepers come in to escort him out. I tell him I love him one last time and the door closes. Nobody comes in to get me right away, so I get a few minutes to myself. I try to calm down and focus on my strategy.

Okay, okay... I have to look weak. I have to look like I'll be one of the ones who will die off on his own from being incapable of doing anything to survive. I'll leave here crying. I'll leave here defeated. But in reality, when the Games start, I'll put everything I have into protecting her. I'll do anything.

Peacekeepers come in to escort me to the train that will take us to the Capitol. I stand up, take a deep breath, and walk out with them. I'm led to the train where Katniss and I have to stand side-by-side so cameras can get more footage of us. I make sure to cry the entire time, trying to express a defeated attitude. I can see Katniss glancing over at me periodically, confused. She has the same nonchalant look on her face as earlier. She's trying to seem superior, maybe even bored. She wants to intimidate everyone.

We board the train, and even as the doors close, people are desperately trying to get footage of us.

The train begins to move, fast. Beyond any speed I could have imagined. I've never been on anything like this. Not only is it incredibly fast, it's so elegant. So clean and the pleasant smells are such a nice change from the smell of coal.

Effie shows Katniss and I to our rooms, which are across from each other. I walk into my room and I am blown away. I've never been in such a nice room before. In District 12, my home was considered one of the nicer homes in the district, besides the mayor's house. But my house is nothing compared to this room. The bedroom is so lavish with a bed the size of my whole bedroom back home, with soft sheets made of a material I've never even seen before.

I explore the rest of my quarters, finding a dressing area and a bathroom. The dressing area is filled with exquisitely made clothes and shoes that look downright uncomfortable, but very fancy; much fancier than the scruffy brown leather boots I wear every day.

The bathroom is so clean and bright that I have to wait a second for my eyes to adjust. The lighting in District 12 is always dim, and sometimes the electricity doesn't work at all. After my eyes adjust to the harsh brightness, I take in my surroundings of the overly-large bathroom.

The shower is far beyond my knowledge. There are so many dials and levers, I get dizzy trying to figure it all out. I decide to take a shower, and I strip my clothes off and get in. I have hot water back home, but it only lasts a few minutes and I, being the youngest, always get the last shower of the night, which always results in the water being freezing cold.

I get in and try to figure out the shower buttons. I choose an apple-scented shampoo and body wash because it reminds me of my tree back home. I would sit in the backyard and watch the sunlight shine through its branches. I probably sketched that tree hundreds of times at different angles, different times of the year, and different times of the day. We don't have many things to do for entertainment in District 12, so I always turn to drawing.

I finish my shower and put on black pants and a grey sweater. As I leave my room, I run into Haymitch in the hallway, who is practically incoherent. He mumbles something about taking a nap so I step aside and let him stumble to his room. I walk around and find the dining room; the smells emanating from this room makes my mouth water.

I was never starving back home, but I never got to eat anything lavish. Sometimes we would trade bread for some meat at the butcher's shop, which definitely livened up the daily meals of bread.

I sit down, almost unable to contain my hunger. I sit down at the table and patiently wait for everyone else to join us. A few moments later, Effie and Katniss walk into the dining room. Katniss always looks so beautiful. She walks in wearing a dark green shirt and pants. The outfit reminds me of the woods she is always sneaking into.

Effie and Katniss sit down at the table, and surprisingly, Katniss sits next to me. She looks over at me quickly but then turns her focus back to Effie.

"Where's Haymitch?" Effie chirps in her weird Capitol accent.

"Last time I saw him, he said he was going to take a nap," I tell her.

"Well, it's been an exhausting day," Effie replies with a hint of relief in her voice. She's probably not too upset about his absence.

The food is finally brought in once the three of us take our seats. After we finish one dish, another one is brought in. It seems never-ending, and honestly I don't want it to end. The food is beyond amazing. It makes the bread and meat I eat at home seem like dirt. We have carrot soup, salad, lamb chops, potatoes, cheese, fruit and cake. I'm so full, I'm afraid I won't be able to keep it all down, which wouldn't be good because the last thing I need to be doing is vomiting right before going into an arena where I need to be strong and fed.

Effie eats her supper very formally. She eats tiny little spoonfuls at a time, carefully wiping her mouth with a napkin after each bite. Katniss and I look like animals compared to her but apparently she doesn't see it that way.

"At least, you two have decent manners. The pair last year ate everything with their hands like a couple of savages. It completely upset my digestion," she comments.

I look over at Katniss who is fuming at Effie's comment. Then, in a very Katniss-like fashion, she eats the rest of her food with her hands and even wipes her hands on the fancy white tablecloth.

Katniss and I both get up and I can tell she's feeling as sick as I feel. I hope she can hold the food down too because she needs to gain weight more than I do. Even though she solved her family's hunger problem, she's still far too skinny. Seeing how skinny she is gives me a pang of guilt that I didn't try to sneak her more food.

After supper, we go to another compartment in the train to watch the recap of the reapings from the districts. Communication between the districts isn't allowed unless it's business-related so we don't know anyone from the other districts or what happened at the other reapings. We watch as the reapings are replayed, and I'm making note of all of the tributes.

The two tributes from District 1 are Cato and Clove. They look strong, healthy, and downright scary. I look over at Katniss, but she seems unphased. In District 2, the boy, Marvel, volunteers rather excitedly. Glimmer, the girl tribute from 2, seems fairly dangerous, but also wants to have a "sexy" factor.

Districts 3 and 4 don't really stand out to me, but I still make a mental note to watch them to make sure I'm not underestimating them, because they could just be using the same strategy that I'm using. District 5 reaps a frail-looking girl with bright red hair, but she seems eerily calm when she takes the stage, so I make a note to watch out for her.

District 11's tributes stick out the most of them all. The boy, whose name is Thresh, has to be close to 7 feet tall. He is monstrous and has a deadly look on his face. The girl tribute is an 11-year-old fragile-looking girl named Rue. Nobody ever wants to see their people reaped, but it's especially hurtful when it's an 11-year-old. They are so little, so innocent. They never win because they are never as big and strong as the older contestants. The tributes from 1, 2, and 4 are usually 18 because they wait until they come of age and then volunteer to go in.

District 12's reaping is the last to show. I see Prim being called and Katniss running out and volunteering. Gale taking Prim away. Katniss walking to the stage, looking intimidating and determined. It shows Haymitch falling off the stage in his usual drunken stupor, which adds a comic relief to the tension of Katniss volunteering because they have to air every dramatic detail to make for a good show. My name is called and I watch myself go onto the stage. I see myself look over at Katniss, but for the most part I stay stone-faced. It shows us shake hands and then they play the anthem.

Effie says something about her wig and we can tell she's angry at Haymitch for making her look slightly less "perfect" than she wanted to look on television.

"Your mentor has a lot to learn about presentation. A lot about televised behavior," she snaps.

I laugh because I feel like she should know him by now. She's the escort for District 12 every year and Haymitch is the mentor. Effie's job is to present us to the sponsors and Haymitch's job is to oversee the sponsors' donations. The more money that is bet on us, the better gifts we can receive in the arena. If one of us is starving and we have a sponsor, Haymitch can use the money to send us food, for example. So sponsors are pretty important. Which means it isn't good that Haymitch is in charge of all that when he can't even be in charge of taking a shower.

"He was drunk. He's drunk every year," I say.

"Every day," Katniss adds. She smiles a little at me, which makes me so happy. She never smiles.

"Yes. How odd you two find it amusing. You know your mentor is your lifeline to the world in these Games. The one who advises you, lines up your sponsors, and dictates the presentation of any gifts. Haymitch can well be the difference between your life and your death!" she says.

I mean, that is true. But it's so hard to take Effie seriously when she dresses and talks so ridiculously.

Then Haymitch stumbles in. He's across the room but I can still smell the alcohol on him. His hair is matted and dirty and his clothes are soaked in sweat and vomit.

"I miss supper?" he drunkenly asks. Then he burps and vomits all over the fancy-looking carpet. Then, as a finale of his grand entrance, he passes out and, of course, falls straight into the vomit on the floor.

"So laugh away!" Effie shrills. Then she stands, hops around Haymitch and the impressive amount of vomit and goes down the hallway. How am I supposed to protect Katniss when our lifeline in the Games can't even stay sober long enough to remember to eat?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Katniss and I exchange glances of disgust. We've been in his company for 5 minutes and we're already exhausted with his behavior. Something has to change if he's gonna help me save her. Haymitch gains consciousness and tries to stand up, but he slips and falls back into the vomit. Katniss and I look at each other again, silently agreeing to help our vomit-drenched mentor. We walk over to him, grab his arms and help him up.

"I tripped? Smells bad..." He mumbles. Man, this guy is a piece of work. This is gonna be harder than I thought.

"Let's get you back to your room. Clean you up a bit," I offer.

We drag Haymitch into his room and get him into his bathtub. I turn the shower on him, but he just lays there, half unconscious.

I look over at Katniss and I can tell she would rather be anywhere else.

"It's okay. I'll take it from here," I tell her. This is a good start to get her to trust me. Show her I'm not the bad guy.

She looks relieved. "All right. I can send one of the Capitol people to help you."

"No. I don't want them," I say. That's probably the last thing I want. I don't want to deal with them any longer than I need to.

She nods and leaves the room. I look back to Haymitch who is dead to the world. I let the water run over him until most of the vomit has washed down the drain. I undress him and push the buttons on the wall to program a very cleansing and powerful shower for him. I help him up and get all of the vomit out of his hair.

"I wish you were sober. I really need to talk to you about my strategy," I mumble angrily.

I don't figure I'll get a response, but he looks up at me.

"You know, I'm always drunk. I know how to function if I need to. If it's that important, we can talk now," he mumbles.

I gather my thoughts and begin. I explain that I want to protect Katniss and help her win, even though I know it means that I'll die.

"Hmm, that's an interesting approach. Never heard that one," Haymitch smirks. He gets done with his shower and motions for me to come sit in the dining room.

"I didn't get to eat supper and I'm starving. Talk while I eat," he says.

He orders a bowl of soup and slurps while I continue.

"I've known this girl for 11 years. I don't think she remembers me, but I notice her and what she goes through every day. She deserves to win. She deserves to go home, Haymitch, and I will do anything to help her," I desperately explain.

"What are you, some kind of stalker?" Haymitch quips.

"Shut up. Can you help me?" I ask, irritated.

"Okay. I can help. But you are probably going to do some things that a lot of people won't understand or like. Katniss will probably hate you for it, but it should keep her safe. I need to think about it and I'll let you know when I get a clear plan together," he says. "I'm tired so I'm going to sleep," he yawns. He stands up and stretches, and then he leaves the room.

I sit there alone for a few minutes, relieved that he's going to help me. This is good. He'll know what to do. He's been in the Games before and won. He'll know how this stuff works and he'll be able to help me protect her.

I go to my room and lay down in the extravagant bed. I think about my family. My mother is probably sleeping like a baby, unaffected. I don't know why my father has stayed with her all these years. My mother is abusive to my brothers and me, and hardly ever acknowledges my father. He just lives day to day, baking bread, selling bread, trading bread, trying to keep my mother happy, and making sure his sons are fed and healthy. I was definitely luckier than most in District 12, but I can't help but wish that I had a mother who actually loves me.

Knowing I'll never see my family again is getting me a bit sentimental. I remember Blaze, Cole and I would always climb the apple tree in the backyard when we were little while my mother would go out shopping for medicine and clothing. My father would bake our favorite breads and we would sit outside and enjoy the day. We would pick apples off of the tree and throw them at eachother, and afterwards we would clean the apples and eat them with fresh bread.

My father would surprise us sometimes by sprinkling sugar on top of the apples and bread, which he knew we loved. Sugar was a hard-to-come-by item in District 12, but when it was available, our father would make sure to buy a small amount and hide it from my mother so she wouldn't throw it out.

One day we found the secret sugar supply while my parents were out trading bread for other food, and we made bread with sugar baked in it and hid it under Cole's bed so we could eat it whenever we wanted. Our mother found it and beat all three of us with a belt. We all had very discernible bruises at school the next day.

Nobody ever said anything about the abuse because it was far from the most important issue on everyone's minds in 12. I knew it could've been worse for us, so I just took it. Looking back, I wish I would've tried to stop her. At least I have good memories with my brothers and father to remember.

I change into pajamas and lay back down, determined to get some rest. I need to get as much sleep as I can before the arena. Who knows how much I'll get in there?

I wake up fairly early from an unpleasant dream of Katniss and I dying in the arena, so I get up and take a hot shower to wash away the nightmarish images. I dress in grey pants and a white long-sleeve shirt and go to the dining car for breakfast. Nobody is there but Haymitch, who is looking exhausted and hungover. I walk over and sit across from him, determined to get some strategy talk in before Katniss wakes up.

"Okay, have you thought about it?" I ask him.

"Whoa, killer. I just woke up. My head is pounding and I need a drink. Just give me a damn minute," Haymitch snaps.

I exhale loudly but sit there patiently while he gets situated. A Capitol attendant brings me a cup filled with a warm, brown liquid and a basket of rolls. I smell the drink and see Haymitch chuckle a bit.

"It's called hot chocolate. Pretty good, just don't burn your tongue," he explains.

I take a small sip and I'm rewarded with a warm, sweet liquid. I continue to sip while picking up a roll. I break off a piece and dip it into the hot chocolate. The bread soaks up the drink and makes it soft and full of the sweet flavor. I keep snacking on the roll and wait for Haymitch to begin explaining the strategy.

"I'm just trying to understand why you're willing to die for this girl. She doesn't seem very pleasant or anything. And you said she doesn't even know you. So you're either some creepy stalker or you're one of those boys who's totally in love with a girl but is too much of a wimp to tell her," he says.

"Stop calling me a stalker, okay? My feelings for her aren't important right now, okay? I just want her to survive," I reply.

Haymitch chuckles and shakes his head.

"You're totally in love with her. I should tell her," Haymitch jokes.

I guess I have a look of horror on my face, because Haymitch stops laughing and pats my shoulder.

"Calm down, kid. I won't tell her. We'll keep the girl safe," he said.

Just then, Effie and Katniss walk into the room. I can feel how embarrassed I look and Haymitch looks at me and just laughs again. I just try to focus on my roll and hot chocolate and hope that Katniss didn't hear any of that conversation.

"Sit down! Sit down!" Haymitch says to Katniss. She sits down next to me, and then they bring us our food. Our plates are overflowing with food. I fill up on eggs, ham and potatoes. I can't help but eat until I am about to explode. The food is so good and I know I'll never get food this good ever again, so I figured I might as well eat until I can't fit anything else in my stomach. They give a cup of hot chocolate to Katniss, who looks at it confused.

"They call it hot chocolate," I explain. "It's good."

She takes a drink and I can tell she likes it as much as I do. She doesn't sip it like I've been doing, though, but chugs the entire cup. I hope she didn't burn her tongue. I probably should've warned her of that.

She fills up on an exorbitant amount of food too. After sitting for a few minutes, I can't help but eat another roll dipped in hot chocolate. Katniss looks around at us, taking us in probably. She looks at Haymitch and frowns, so I look over to him. He's definitely drinking alcohol. I don't know if he's ever gonna sober up enough to help me get Katniss to win the Games.

I can tell that Katniss is frustrated. I know she wants to win, to go home to her sister. The way Haymitch has been acting has come off to us in a "I'm not going to help you, leave me alone" kind of way. I don't know if Katniss and Haymitch have had any kind of strategy talk yet. I don't even think the talk Haymitch and I had would be considered a strategy talk. He never gave any advice. He only called me a stalker and a wimp.

"So, you're supposed to give us advice," Katniss says.

"Here's some advice. Stay alive," Haymitch replies, laughing.

Is he serious? I don't even know what to say. He is supposed to be helping us. Teaching us how to survive. These are our lives he is joking about. Katniss' life depends on him doing his job and all he can say is "stay alive"?

I look over at Katniss who looks angry as well.

"That's very funny," I snap. Then I slap the glass out of Haymitch's hand. I'm tired of him acting like our lives are just a toy for him to play with. The glass shatters on the floor, splattering the alcohol on the carpet. "Only not to us," I add angrily.

Haymitch looks at me for a moment, then punches me square in the jaw. I'm so caught off guard that I fall out of my chair onto the floor. I glance up at Haymitch, who is reaching for another drink.

Then, Katniss picks up a knife and drives it into the table between the bottle and his hand. I swear, she was an inch away from stabbing him. I'm very impressed that she can use a knife so well as a weapon. I mean, I know she uses a bow and arrow in the woods because when she brings my father squirrels, there is always a puncture mark that my father says came from an arrow. I didn't know she could use a knife as well. Maybe she's more capable of winning this by herself than I'm letting myself believe.

Haymitch looks at both of us, taking in what we've just done.

"Well, what's this? Did I actually get a pair of fighters this year?" he asks.

I stand up, feeling my jaw pulsating with pain. The guy may be a drunk, but he has a decent punch. I scoop up a handful of ice from the table to put to my jaw to try to stop the swelling, but Haymitch stops me.

"No. Let the bruise show. The audience will think you've mixed it up with another tribute before you've even made it to the arena," he explains.

"That's against the rules," I respond. There aren't many rules in the Games, but one of the few is that we aren't allowed to fight the other tributes until we're in the arena.

"Only if they catch you," Haymitch says. "That bruise will say you fought, you weren't caught, even better."

Wow, he's actually giving good advice now. Maybe we should've attacked him earlier.

Haymitch turns to Katniss, who still looks slightly annoyed. She really hates this guy.

"Can you hit anything with that knife besides a table?" he asks her.

She pulls the knife out of the table and launches it into the wall of the dining car. Haymitch nods, looking impressed.

"Stand over here. Both of you," he commands.

We do as he asks and he circles us, taking in all of our features. "Well, you're not entirely hopeless. Seem fit. And once the stylists get hold of you, you'll be attractive enough."

One thing we have to do as tributes is look attractive. That means having a stylist that waxes you, puts makeup on you, and dresses you up in ridiculous outfits to impress the sponsors. Even though the main focus is the arena, looking attractive in the opening ceremony and interview helps us to get sponsors before the Games even begin.

"All right, I'll make a deal with you," Haymitch says. "You don't interfere with my drinking, and I'll stay sober enough to help you. But you have to do exactly what I say."

"Fine," I say. That's better than nothing.

"So help us," says Katniss. "When we get to the arena, what's the best strategy at the Cornucopia for someone-"

"One thing at a time. In a few minutes, we'll be pulling into the station. You'll be put in the hands of your stylists. You're not going to like what they do to you. But no matter what it is, don't resist," says Haymitch.

I've seen some of the things stylists have done to tributes. This is a little hard to agree to.

"But-" Katniss says.

"No buts. Don't resist," Haymitch says.

I think she agrees with me. The stylists really go overboard sometimes. That's the last thing we need. For the stylists to make us stick out in awful costumes.

Haymitch stands up, grabs a bottle of alcohol, and leaves the room. Katniss and I sit in silence, debating Haymitch's deal. If what he is doing keeps Katniss safe, I'll play along and do anything he asks. We stand and go to the windows, watching the landscape blur by.

We continue to stand in silence. We enter a tunnel and the train car goes dark except for the built-in lights in the room. I look over at Katniss who is lost in her thoughts. What is she thinking? Does she have a strategy? Does she trust Haymitch? Does she trust me?

We emerge out of the tunnel and are greeted with the colorful, over-the-top city called the Capitol. All of the colors are artificially bright. The buildings tower over us, colorful and massive. Everything looks so much more grand in person than on television.

I've never been to the Capitol before, so seeing it now is overwhelming. It is so large and elegant. Nothing like District 12. We get to the train station where there are hundreds upon hundreds of Capitol citizens waiting for us. They are shouting and waving, hoping to catch a glimpse of the tributes.

Katniss sees the people and backs away from the window. I stay there, determined to make a good impression. I just have to win these shallow people over, get them to sponsor Katniss and me, and I can make sure she has enough resources from the sponsors to survive in the arena and win.

I look back at Katniss and she is glaring at me. She doesn't understand what I'm doing. She probably thinks I'm some kind of horrible person.

I don't want to tell her my plan because she would never let me protect her. She would want to do this on her own, not making any friends or allies. I just need people to like her so they will sponsor her and buy her gifts. The richer they are, the more Haymitch can send to her in the arena that could mean life or death.

"Who knows? One of them may be rich," I explain.

I probably should've worded that better.

After I say that, Katniss glares at me with such disgust.

Great.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Well, this is unpleasant.

I'm surrounded by three odd-looking Capitol citizens who are going to be my prep team. Their job is to make me look my best. My stylist, who they are calling Portia, has instructed them to wax me, cut my hair, and put makeup on my face to cover any imperfections.

I'm standing in a room with my three prep team members. One of them, Amelie, is very tall and rail thin. She has a powder white wig on with small gold stars embellishing it. She is wearing a thick, golden fur coat that drops to the floor. Finian is short and slightly chubby. He has an indigo afro and is wearing a white suit covered in silver spikes. The last member of my prep team is named Carlin, and she has blonde, sleek hair with streaks of teal that goes to her waist. She is wearing an overly tight black dress that stops at mid-thigh then cascades in flowing fabric down to the floor. They are all wearing about ten pounds of makeup and they all have those ridiculous Capitol accents.

"This is my least favorite part! I hate how hairy they are in the beginning," Carlin says.

I stand, completely naked, as they circle me and make a plan as to what needs to be done to make me more attractive. They wax my facial hair and chest hair but leave everything else alone. After they get done waxing my face and chest, they put some kind of lotion on that will stop the hair from growing back for the length of the Games. They look at my hair, thinking about what should be done. My hair is blonde and curly; it usually just flops over on my forehead. I don't really do anything to it besides wash it. There are more important things to do back home.

They trim my hair and put something in it that smells nice and they style it by slicking it back out of my face. After my hair is satisfactory to them, they move on to makeup. Something called concealer is applied under my eyes and something else is put on my skin to "even it out and make it glow" that they call foundation. They file my nails to make them round and perfect-looking and put some kind of lotion on my skin that makes my burned baker's hands look soft and unused.

Portia, a middle-aged woman with jet black hair and blue eyeliner, comes into the room and circles me.

"Good job, team. Give me a minute alone with Peeta please," she says.

The prep team leaves the room and Portia hands me a robe to put on and motions for me to sit down.

"I can't imagine how you're feeling right now. I just want you to know that my job is to make you look stunning so you can get sponsors, and I'll do my very best to help you," Portia says.

Weird. I always imagined the stylists being conceited and obsessed with the carnage of the Games, but Portia is so calm and down-to-earth.

"Thank you," I say, frowning slightly.

"I have been consulting with Katniss' stylist, Cinna, and we have come up with a design for your costumes for the opening ceremonies. It is traditional that you wear a costume that portrays what your district is known for. Since District 12 is known for coal, everyone is expecting us to use a coal miner uniform like the other stylists do every year. But we don't want to do that. We want District 12 to come out in something unexpected. Something new," Portia explains.

She walks over to a closet and pulls out a black unitard and black boots. She helps me dress, and then attaches a cape accented with orange, yellow, and red so it resembles flames, then adorns a matching headpiece. I look in the mirror. I'm mesmerized at the cape and headpiece; when I move, the colors glimmer, almost like real fire. Then, she pulls out some kind of torch and fire sprays out of it. I take a step back, horrified.

"Sorry, I should've warned you. It's not real fire, just something Cinna and I invented to look like fire," Portia explains proudly. "It will make you look like burning coal."

She turns the torch off, does final touches on my makeup and then leads me to Katniss, who looks stunning in the same costume that I'm wearing. They lead us down to the lowest level of the Remake Center, which is filled with chariots, horses and other tributes with their teams of stylists, escorts and mentors. Portia and Cinna lead Katniss and I to our chariot and get us into position. After seeming satisfied with how we look, they leave to go talk to one another.

After a moment of silence, Katniss actually talks to me.

"What do you think? About the fire?" Katniss whispers.

"I'll rip off your cape if you'll rip off mine," I whisper back.

"Deal," she replies.

We continue to stand there while other tributes get into their positions. Most of the other tributes' costumes are pretty cheesy, which makes me thankful for our stylists' approach. I see other tributes talking to their mentors, most of whom I recognize from seeing them on television in past Hunger Games. Seeing everyone else's mentors reminds me of ours.

"Where is Haymitch, anyway? Isn't he supposed to protect us from this sort of thing?" I ask Katniss.

"With all that alcohol in him, it's probably not advisable to have him around an open flame," she says.

Even with the anger I have at Haymitch's absence, I laugh. It feels nice to laugh, especially with everything on my mind recently. Katniss starts to laugh too, which is a welcome sound.

The opening music begins to play, signaling the beginning of the ceremony. We and the other 22 tributes will ride in our chariots to the City Circle, where the president of the Capitol will give a speech. There will be quite an audience watching the ceremony, with stands filled with citizens from the Capitol just itching to get a glimpse of this year's tributes. I hope Katniss can contain her hatred long enough to get through this.

The District 1 tributes ride out first, spray-painted a silver color with jeweled tunics adorning their bodies. They are representing luxury items, which is what their district is known for. The crowd goes wild for them. District 1 has always been a Capitol favorite because they are always so strong and attractive, which is the best type of tribute in the Capitol's eyes.

District 2 comes in behind them, who also get a warm welcome from the audience. The other districts come out, one by one, until it is our turn. I see Cinna standing next to the entrance with the torch in his hand. He walks up to us and turns it on, which ignites a flame on the end of it.

"Here we go then," he says. He brings the torch our capes and lights them on fire. Instead of feeling the sense of my skin burning, I only feel a tingling sensation on my back. I look over at Katniss, who seems just as surprised as me. Cinna climbs onto the front of the chariot and lights our headdresses on fire as well, and then he sighs a breath of relief. "It works."

He looks at Katniss and puts his hand under her chin. "Remember, heads high. Smiles. They're going to love you!"

She smiles at him and he gets off the chariot and steps aside. I look over to her and see her face alight with the fake flame. She looks mesmerizing. Nobody in that audience is going to forget her.

I hear Cinna say something and I look over at him. He says something again and clasps his hands together. He wants us to hold hands? Katniss won't like this because I don't think she likes me very much.

"What's he saying?" Katniss asks me, with a look on her face that I can't quite understand.

"I think he said for us to hold hands," I say nervously.

Well, here goes nothing.

I reach out for her hand and clasp it in mine. She actually holds my hand instead of pulling away. We look over to Cinna to make sure that's what he wanted, and he nods and gives us a thumbs-up. Our chariot starts to move, and we are pulled out into the city.

I hear a lot of gasps and shouts. After a moment of everyone being stunned, the cheering begins. Everyone in the stands is shouting "District 12! District 12!" and they have all locked eyes on us. We are now the focus of this ceremony. I block out all of my emotions and just focus on winning over the crowd. We are District 12, the district that nobody gives a second thought to. But after today, we will be the district nobody stops thinking about.

I flash my best please-sponsor-me-and-help-us-survive smile, and wave to the crowd. I push my chest out slightly to show I have confidence. I'm not going to be the crying boy at the reaping. I need to get sponsors, and crying won't get any. I need to be strong, confident, and most of all, likable. And nobody likes a crybaby.

I glance over at Katniss and I nearly fall off the chariot. She is smiling. Not only that, she is waving and blowing kisses to the audience. She must be thinking the same thing I am. We need sponsors, and they like happy, confident tributes.

I notice everyone is shouting Katniss' name, and I don't blame them. Who wouldn't like her? She's shown everyone how selfless she is by volunteering to take Prim's place. She's beautiful, which is being enhanced by the flames. And even though she is from District 12, she looks like someone who can actually win this thing. I can see the determination in her eyes. And I think everyone in the Capitol sees it too.

We enter the City Circle, and when we do, Katniss tries to let go of my hand. I tighten my grip to let her know I'm not letting go. I need her to know she can trust me, but I can never tell her that because she would never believe me. So I think of some other excuse as to why I want to keep her hand in mine.

"No, don't let go of me. Please. I might fall out of this thing," I say.

She looks at me with those beautiful grey eyes. "Okay," she replies.

We come to a stop in the City Circle, in front of the president's mansion, where the other tributes are standing in their chariots. The cheering has died down as President Snow walks out onto the balcony. All of the cameras are focusing on the tributes and the president, though I notice a majority of the time, the cameras are on Katniss and me. I'm not surprised. We made quite an entrance.

We turn our attention to the president. He looks quite sick, especially to the Capitol's standards. It has been deemed attractive to have some weight on you, but President Snow is rather skinny, with paper thin white hair.

President Snow welcomes us and as quickly as he emerges, his speech is over and we are being led back into the training center. He really gets to the point of things.

The doors close behind us, and we are welcomed back by our entourages. They are praising our performance, which I don't hear the majority of because I notice the other tributes staring at us. Almost every single one of them has their eyes locked on us, some giving looks of envy, others looks of anger.

Our stylists help us off of our chariot and extinguish our flames with some kind of spray. Katniss and I realize we are still holding hands, and we release each other. My hand is stiff and slightly sore from how hard she was squeezing it, but I don't mind. I was her support out there, and I hope she keeps thinking of me that way instead of thinking that I'm her enemy.

"Thanks for keeping hold of me. I was getting a little shaky there," I say to her.

"It didn't show. I'm sure no one noticed," she replies.

She's being nice to me. This is new. Maybe she is starting to trust me.

"I'm sure they didn't notice anything but you. You should wear flames more often. They suit you," I tell her. And they really do. She looked absolutely stunning out there.

I smile nervously at her, afraid of how she will take the compliment.

She looks at me for a second, and then does something unexpected. She stands on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. Then she walks away without a word.

Why did she do that? I stand there in disbelief, wondering why she was trying to be nice. I get a flutter of hope, trying to believe that she meant to be nice and let me know that she has noticed me trying to be kind to her. I smile to myself as I make my way back towards the elevator. I absentmindedly push the "12" button to go to our floor. When I get there, I walk straight to my room and shower. I don't like the feeling of wearing makeup. I don't see how the people in the Capitol do it on a normal basis.

After I take a shower, I start to make my way to the living room to wait for everyone else to get back. I take these few minutes to think about today's events. There is a definite downside to drawing so much attention to ourselves today, but I'm strangely okay with it.

That's right. District 12 is going to fight this year. We are going to show all of you that we are something to be feared. We are ready.

Let the 74th Hunger Games begin.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

I walk into the living room, where Katniss and Effie are just now stepping off of the elevator. Effie is practically glowing with happiness, congratulating us on a job well done.

"I've done nothing but talk you two up all day long! I've been very mysterious, though," squinting at us. "Because, of course, Haymitch hasn't bothered to tell me your strategies. But I've done my best with what I had to work with. How Katniss sacrificed herself for her sister. How you've both successfully struggled to overcome the barbarism of your district."

That's an interesting word to use. Barbarism. District 12 is starving, so we obviously aren't going to have the best manners of everyone she's met. I try to brush off the ignorant comment and try to just focus on what else she is saying.

"Everyone has their reservations, naturally. You being from the coal district. But I said, and this was very clever of me, I said, 'Well, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls!'" Effie looks so proud of herself for being so clever, I don't have the heart to tell her she is wrong.

Coal doesn't turn to pearls, or even into diamonds like most people believe. The things I know because I live in the coal district.

"Unfortunately, I can't seal the sponsor deals for you. Only Haymitch can do that," says Effie, with a look of distaste on her face. "But don't worry, I'll get him to the table at gunpoint if necessary."

Weird. I didn't know the escorts get this involved in what happens with the tributes.

I go back to my room and take off the white pants and black tee shirt I slipped on earlier after my shower, and climb into bed. It feels so nice compared to being in a skin-tight unitard. I realize how exhausted I am and decide to take a nap.

I wake up to someone knocking on my door. It's Effie calling me to dinner.

I get out of bed and put the white pants and black shirt back on, grab a jacket and make my way to the dining area. Nobody is there yet except for the stylists, Portia and Cinna. I walk out onto the balcony to take a look at the Capitol. This is the first time I've gotten to take a good look at the city since we first got here. Cinna and Portia join me, congratulating me on my performance at the opening ceremony and wishing me luck. I try to act thankful because I don't want them to know my actual strategy.

"Have you seen the roof yet, Peeta?" Cinna asks me.

I shake my head, so he leads me to a doorway that leads upstairs to the roof. When we walk out onto the roof, I'm blown away by how beautiful it is up here. You can see the entire city, glimmering with lights and alive with the sounds of the Capitol citizens having a party in honor of the Hunger Games. We walk to the edge, and I see the straight drop down to the road below.

"Are the tributes even allowed up here? What if one of us decides to jump off?" I ask him. Cinna holds his hand out and it jerks back.

"There is a force field around it. Anything that comes off this roof comes right back," he explains. I stick my hand out and it is forcefully pushed backward.

"Hmm," I say distantly. We stand there in silence for a moment, taking in the view. I look around and see a garden. It's always nice to see plants. It reminds me of my tree back home.

"We'd better get back, dinner is about to be served," Cinna says. I nod and we head back down.

Back in the dining area, I see that Katniss and Effie are sitting down at the table. The stylists and I walk over and take our seats. A man wearing a white outfit walks in and offers us some wine. When I notice he isn't saying a word, I realize that he's an Avox. Avoxes are criminals in the Capitol. They are sentenced to have their tongues cut out and forced to attend to the Capitol's needs.

I take a glass of wine. My mother used to talk about wine sometimes, but she never bought any because she said it makes even the most sensible person turn into someone vile.

I take a sip, not caring about my mother's opinion of the stuff, and am rewarded with a tangy, crisp taste. I know you're not supposed to chug it, so I continue to take small sips occasionally. I look over and see that Katniss seems to enjoy it as well, and I wonder if she ever got any at the Hob.

The Hob is the black market of District 12. My father goes there sometimes to trade bread for fabrics and things, mostly because he knows people from the Seam go there a lot, so he wants to make sure they are getting fed somehow.

Haymitch finally decides to make an entrance, and I'm nearly floored by how clean he looks. His hair has been washed and brushed, and he even shaved his stubble. He casually walks, not stumbles, up to the table and sits down. When the Avox offers him wine, he accepts it but doesn't put in his usual addition of extra alcohol.

The first course brought in is a soup with a thick broth and mushrooms. I take a bite, and it's delicious, just like all of the other Capitol food I've tasted. Everyone is making small talk, mostly about the ceremony and how fierce we looked. We are continually served new courses, including a roast beef that I honestly never want to stop eating.

I see Katniss switch to water halfway through her glass of wine, and I decide to do the same. I don't want to be out of my right mind for even a second. The stylists start to talk about ideas for our interview costumes, so I listen in to see where their heads are.

A female Avox brings a brilliantly-decorated cake to our table. Back in 12, I used to decorate the cakes my father would bake. People from all over the district would come by to look at the cakes in our display window. They were fairly expensive, so they were bought mostly by the mayor and his daughter, Madge.

The Avox lights the cake on fire. The flames skirt the edges of the cake for a short while and then fizzle out. I hear Effie sigh admirably, and the stylists are muttering about how beautiful it was.

Katniss speaks up. "What makes it burn? Is it alcohol? That's the last thing I wa- oh! I know you!" she exclaims.

How can she know her? I'm really confused and I look over to her. She has a guilty look on her face and everyone at the table is staring at her. The Avox shakes her head and leaves the table quickly.

"Don't be ridiculous, Katniss. How could you possibly know an Avox?" Effie snaps at her. "The very thought."

"What's an Avox?" Katniss asks.

"Someone who committed a crime. They cut her tongue so she can't speak. She's probably a traitor of some sort. Not likely you'd know her," explains Haymitch.

"And even if you did, you're not to speak to one of them unless it's to give an order," Effie says, irritated. "Of course, you don't really know her."

I look at Katniss, who looks really uncomfortable and upset.

"No, I guess not, I just-" she starts to say.

I decide to step in and help her.

"Delly Cartwright. That's who it is. I kept thinking she looked familiar as well. Then I realized she's a dead ringer for Delly," I say.

Katniss and I both know that the Avox and Delly Cartwright look nothing alike, but I can hear her breathe a sigh of relief.

"Of course, that's who I was thinking of. It must be the hair," she says.

"Something about the eyes, too," I reply.

I can see everyone around the table nodding and focusing back on the cake.

"Oh, well. If that's all it is," says Cinna. "And yes, the cake has spirits, but all the alcohol has burned off. I ordered it specially in honor of your fiery debut."

Everyone eats some cake and then we go into the sitting area to watch the recap of the opening ceremony. Everyone is putting on their best show, waving to the camera and putting on their most award-winning smiles. Everyone is ignoring the other tribute in their districts, which makes District 12 stand out even more since we are holding hands. When we make our debut, the commentators "ooh" and "ah" at the flames.

"Whose idea was the hand holding?" asks Haymitch.

"Cinna's," says Portia.

"Just the perfect touch of rebellion. Very nice," Haymitch says.

I'm beginning to like Haymitch a bit more. He knows what we're going through. He went through all of this once, and came out a Victor.

"Tomorrow morning is the first training session. Meet me for breakfast and I'll tell you exactly how I want you to play it," Haymitch says to us. "Now go get some sleep while the grown-ups talk."

Katniss and I walk together down the hall towards our rooms. I want to know how she knows the Avox. I helped her back there, so maybe she'll trust me enough to tell me.

I stand in front of the doorway to her room. "So, Delly Cartwright. Imagine finding her lookalike here," I say sarcastically to her.

She looks at me, debating on whether or not to tell me, I think. She continues to stare at me, not saying a word.

Then I remember how many illegal things she does back in 12 and wonder if the girl had something to do with it. I realize that we're probably being listened to by Capitol people, and I'm sure that's what Katniss is thinking too.

"Have you been on the roof yet?" She shakes her head. "Cinna showed me. You can practically see the whole city. The wind's a bit loud, though," I say to her.

"Can we just go up?" she asks me.

"Sure, come on," I tell her and lead her to the stairway.

When we step outside, I close my eyes and take in the cool, evening air. It's so refreshing compared to the air in District 12, which is thick with coal dust. I lead her to the edge of the roof, where we watch the people living their lives. I look over at Katniss, who is deep in thought.

"I asked Cinna why they let us up here. Weren't they worried that some of the tributes might decide to jump right over the side?" I say to her.

"What'd he say?" she asks.

"You can't," I explain. I show her what I mean by sticking my hand out into the air and letting her watch it bounce back. "Some kind of electric field throws you back on the roof."

"Always worried about our safety," she mutters. "Do you think they're watching us now?"

"Maybe," I say. I take that as a hint of her wanting privacy. "Come see the garden."

I take her to the garden I saw earlier, which I know is a good place to talk because there are at least a hundred windchimes in here and it's a windy night.

She walks up to some flowers and begins to talk quietly while examining them.

"We were hunting in the woods one day. Hidden, waiting for game," she explains.

"You and your father?" I ask.

"No, my friend Gale. Suddenly all the birds stopped singing at once. Except one. As if it were giving a warning call. And then we saw her. I'm sure it was the same girl. A boy was with her. Their clothes were tattered. They had dark circles under their eyes from no sleep. They were running as if their lives depended on it," she says.

"The hovercraft appeared out of nowhere," she continues. "I mean, one moment the sky was empty and the next it was there. It didn't make a sound, but they saw it. A net dropped down on the girl and carried her up, fast, so fast like the elevator. They shot some sort of spear through the boy. It was attached to a cable and they hauled him up as well. But I'm certain he was dead. We heard the girl scream once. The boy's name, I think. Then it was gone, the hovercraft. Vanished into thin air. And the birds began to sing again, as if nothing had happened."

"Did they see you?" I ask her.

"I don't know. We were under a shelf of rock," she explains.

I glance over to her and I see a look of remorse on her face. A look of sadness. She's looking off into the distance and her whole body is shaking.

"You're shivering," I say to her. I take off my jacket and put it on her shoulders. She hesitates, but then accepts it.

"They were from here?" I ask. I button the top button of the jacket so it doesn't fall off.

She nods.

"Where do you suppose they were going?"

"I don't know that," she says. "Or why they would leave here."

Looking at the Capitol citizens, how they act and dress, makes me glad I am who I am and that I live where I live. We have it bad in 12, but at least we act like decent human beings. I would never want to live here, even with all of the food they have.

"I'd leave here," I say louder than I mean to. "I'd go home now if they let me. But you have to admit, the food's prime," I say to dismiss any thought of rebellion to the Capitol. That's something I don't need them thinking is going through my mind.

"It's getting chilly. We better go in," I say. We walk back inside and start walking back toward our rooms.

I decide since she's being friendly, now is the best time to ask about something that's been on my mind.

"Your friend Gale. He's the one who took your sister away at the reaping?" I ask. Of course, I know the answer because he came to visit me when people were saying goodbye.

"Yes. Do you know him?" she asks.

"Not really. I hear the girls talk about him a lot. I thought he was your cousin or something. You favor each other," I say.

They both have dark hair and grey eyes. Most kids from the Seam look similar. Katniss' mother and sister stand out because they both have light blonde hair and blue eyes. I never saw Katniss and Gale act romantic towards each other, so I just assumed that they were related.

"No, we're not related," she says.

I nod. Are they together then?

"Did he come to say good-bye to you?" I ask.

"Yes," she says, eyeing me. "So did your father. He brought me cookies," she says.

Oh, really? That is news to me. He never said anything about visiting her when he came to say goodbye to me, but him visiting her doesn't surprise me. He has always had a soft spot for her and Prim, especially because of his history with their mother.

"Really? Well, he likes you and your sister. I think he wishes he had a daughter instead of a houseful of boys," I say.

She nods, looking a bit confused.

"He knew your mother when they were kids," I explain.

She looks at me, surprised.

"Oh, yes. She grew up in town," she explains.

We get to her bedroom door and she hands me my jacket.

"See you in the morning, then," she says.

"See you."

I walk down the hall into my room. I change into pajamas and lie in bed.

Tomorrow, we will start our three days of training. This is the first time we will be face-to-face with the tributes. I drift off to sleep, thinking about how I'm going to train myself from being a baker's son to becoming a killer.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

I wake up, feeling like I could use a few more hours of sleep, but I get up anyway and take a shower. I program it to take longer than usual and just let the water run over me. Today is a big day, and it is crucial to present myself in the right way.

I get out of the shower and go to the closet, where there is an outfit waiting for me. Black pants, a burgundy-colored long sleeve shirt, and black leather shoes. I put the clothes on and then leave my bedroom. Haymitch is passing my bedroom door, going towards the dining area for breakfast.

"Rise and shine, kid," he mumbles sleepily.

We walk together down to breakfast where Katniss is already at the table eating. I get my food, sit down and begin to eat. Training is three days long, and all 24 tributes will train together. On the last day, we will go in for our individual evaluations. Each tribute goes in front of the gamemakers one by one, showing our skills. We will be rated on a scale from one to twelve, with one being pathetically incompetent and twelve being a deadly force of nature.

"So, let's get down to business," Haymitch says after we've all finished eating. "Training. First off, if you like, I'll coach you separately. Decide now."

"Why would you coach us separately?" Katniss asks.

"Say if you had a secret skill you might not want the other to know about," says Haymitch.

Katniss and I look at each other. "I don't have any secret skills," I say. Which is true. There's nothing special about me. "And I already know what yours is, right? I mean, I've eaten enough of your squirrels."

She looks surprised at my comment about the squirrels, and I have no idea why. Why would I not eat the food she sells to my father? I actually like squirrel meat.

"You can coach us together," Katniss says, bringing me back to the conversation. I nod in agreement.

"All right, so give me some idea of what you can do," Haymitch says.

Uh oh. I'm not good at anything besides baking and drawing.

"I can't do anything. Unless you count baking bread," I say pitifully.

"Sorry, I don't. Katniss. I already know you're handy with a knife," says Haymitch.

"Not really. But I can hunt," she replies. "With a bow and arrow."

"And you're good?" he asks.

She pauses to think about it. Are you kidding? She is a pro with the bow and arrow.

"I'm all right," she finally says.

"She's excellent," I say. "My father buys her squirrels. He always comments on how the arrows never pierce the body. She hits every one in the eye. It's the same with the rabbits she sells the butcher. She can even bring down deer."

Katniss looks at me, surprised. Then she squints at me. "What are you doing?" she asks me.

"What are you doing? If he's going to help you, he has to know what you're capable of. Don't underrate yourself," I say.

She looks annoyed, which I don't understand. Why is she down-playing her skills?

"What about you? I've seen you in the market. You can lift hundred-pound bags of flour. Tell him that. That's not nothing," she snaps.

I'm taken by surprise. She watches me at the market? I'm also confused on how that is a skill that can help me kill 22 people to help save her life.

"Yes, and I'm sure the arena will be full of bags of flour for me to chuck at people. It's not like being able to use a weapon. You know it isn't," I snap back. I'm getting irritated that she's being so stubborn right now. I'm trying to help you live. Just let me...

"He can wrestle. He came in second in our school competition last year, only after his brother," she tells Haymitch.

She remembers that? Maybe I haven't been as invisible to her as I thought. But why is she trying to rate me above herself? Everyone knows that she's the fighter, not me.

"What use is that? How many times have you seen someone wrestle someone to death?" I say, beginning to get angry at her. I will not win. We all know that. Stop falsely giving Haymitch hope that I'm good at anything!

"There's always hand-to-hand combat. All you need is to come up with a knife, and you'll at least stand a chance. If I get jumped, I'm dead!" she yells.

"But you won't! You'll be living up in some tree eating raw squirrels and picking off people with arrows," I say. I know what I can say to shut her up. That my own mother doesn't even believe in me.

"You know what my mother said to me when she came to say good-bye, as if to cheer me up, she says maybe District Twelve will finally have a winner. Then I realized, she didn't mean me, she meant you!" I yell.

"Oh, she meant you," she says, though I can hear the anger leaving her voice.

"She said, 'She's a survivor, that one.' She is," I say.

Then, I realize just how much it hurts that she said that to me. I've never been close with my mother, actually quite the opposite, but knowing my mother doesn't think I even have a chance to win breaks my heart. I'm her son, and she didn't even shed a tear.

Katniss' face takes on a new emotion. Sadness, vulnerability.

"But only because someone helped me."

She remembers.

I shrug, refusing to let her belittle herself any longer. "People will help you in the arena. They'll be tripping over each other to sponsor you."

"No more than you," she says.

I roll my eyes and turn towards Haymitch. "She has no idea. The effect she can have," I say. I mean, Gale came to me, begging me to save her. Basically telling me to die for her. Her little sister sees Katniss as her whole world, her lifeline. I see her and I think of birds, of sweet melodies sung by a happy child. I think of her as strong and independent, risking her life every day to provide for her family. The effect she can have? She can change the world.

We finish our strategy conversation. Haymitch tells Katniss to steer clear of archery so the other tributes can't see how good she is. He tells me to stay away from the weight section to hide my strength, and he wants both of us to spend time learning something that we're not familiar with and to stay by each other's sides every second, which Katniss is not happy about.

We're free to do what we want until 10, which is when we need to meet Effie at the elevator to go to our first day of training. Katniss stomps off to her room, slamming her door. I don't care, hate me. I'm still going to protect you, no matter what you say or do. I sit on my bed and try to keep my head clear. I need to focus in training. I stand up and try to do some stretches, but I just can't stop thinking about Katniss' stubbornness. Why can't she take a compliment? She is so perplexing, and it makes my head hurt just trying to even begin to understand her.

It's almost 10, so I make my way towards the elevator, where Effie is waiting. Katniss comes to the elevator a few moments later, and we descend down to the ground level. The elevator stops, and we walk into a giant gymnasium filled with obstacle courses, and teeming with every weapon imaginable. The most intimidating is that all of the other tributes are already here, and some of them look ready to kill. They pin our district number on our backs and we stand with the other tributes to hear what the training instructor has to say.

She explains each station, saying there will be an expert at each one. We are not to fight one another. We are only allowed to engage a training assistant in a fight. I see Katniss looking around at the other tributes, so I do the same. Most of them are quite larger than us, except for little Rue, the girl tribute from District 11; though most of the tributes, except those from Districts 1, 2, and 4, look as underfed as we are.

Districts 1, 2, and 4 are also called the Career Tributes. They are always better fed and much stronger than the rest of the tributes. They are, as always, deadly-looking this year. They are standing in their own group, sizing up their competition but not looking impressed. They glance at Katniss more times than I'd like, so I get Katniss' attention. "Where would you like to start?" I ask her.

"Suppose we tie some knots," she suggests.

"Right you are," I agree.

I look to see where the Careers are, and they are expertly handling weapons, showing off their impressive skills. Everyone else looks to be about at my level, with no experience whatsoever with weapons or fighting.

We go over to the knot-tying station where we learn how to set a trap that leaves a tribute dangling from a tree by their leg. We then go to the camouflage station, which I really enjoy because it reminds me of when I would decorate the cakes at the bakery back home. I mix some berry juice with some clay and apply it to my arm, adding vines and leaves to camouflage myself into a layout of trees.

I see Katniss looks distracted watching Cato dominate at spear-throwing, so I try to distract her. "I do the cakes," I say to her.

"The cakes?" she asks. "What cakes?"

"At home. The iced ones, for the bakery," I explain.

Katniss leans down and examines the work I did on my arm. "It's lovely. If only you could frost someone to death," she says.

"Don't be so superior. You can never tell what you'll find in the arena. Say it's actually a gigantic cake-" I reply.

"Say we move on," she interrupts.

We have to eat lunch in a large dining room with all of the other tributes, which is awkward and unpleasant, seeing as we'll be trying to kill each other in a matter of days. Katniss and I sit together by ourselves and try to make small talk to show all of the other tributes that we are united as a team. I show her which breads are from which districts, such as the green seaweed fish-shaped bread from District 4, which is known for fishing and the crescent roll with seeds from District 11, the agriculture district.

"And there you have it," I say.

"You certainly know a lot," she says.

"Only about bread. Okay, now laugh as if I've said something funny," I say.

We both laugh, which gets us a fair amount of stares from the other tributes, but I try to ignore them and focus on Katniss, as though we are having a captivating conversation. Haymitch wants us to present ourselves as a team, and that's what we will do.

"All right, I'll keep smiling pleasantly and you talk," I say.

"Did I ever tell you about the time I was chased by a bear?" she asks.

"No, but it sounds fascinating."

She tells me about how she challenged a bear over a beehive. I laugh and ask questions and we continue doing this routine throughout lunch all three days. On the second day, I start to notice Rue following Katniss and I around the gymnasium.

"I think we have a shadow," I whisper.

Katniss looks over towards Rue, who is watching us throw spears. She is small in stature and has dark skin and bright brown eyes. She's standing on her tiptoes, maybe to seem bigger, but she is by far the smallest tribute this year.

"I think her name is Rue," I say to Katniss.

"What can we do about it?" she says, somewhat harshly.

I'm taken aback at the tone of her voice, but I know she's just worried for the little girl. She reminds me of Prim a bit.

"Nothing to do. Just making conversation," I say calmly.

I glance up at the Gamemakers, who are watching all of us closely. They are sitting in raised stands lining the top of the gymnasium. The scores we receive from training will not only come from our individual assessments, but also from our three days of training together. They are supposed to watch everyone, but I find them watching Katniss a lot more than the others.

The second night, Katniss and I finally get a moment of peace from Haymitch and Effie asking us a million questions about training when we slip down the hallway to go to our rooms to get some sleep before the final day of training.

"Someone ought to get Haymitch a drink," I mumble sleepily.

Katniss laughs. Not just a small giggle, a full laugh with a little snort in it. It's nice to hear. What she says next isn't so nice.

"Don't. Don't let's pretend when there's no one around," she says coldly.

It breaks my heart. I thought she was beginning to see me as an ally. A friend.

"All right, Katniss," I say.

Katniss and I move to every station besides archery and weight-lifting over the three days of training. I find that I am pretty good at hand-to-hand combat, which is a relief to know that I won't be useless in the arena. Katniss passed the edible plants test with flying colors. Probably from spending so much time in the woods. She not only brings meat from the woods, but also plants and berries.

On the final day of training, they begin our individual assessments, beginning with the male tribute from District 1, then the female from District 1, and so on until we are the only two left sitting in the cafeteria. We sit in silence, which has been the case every time we haven't been in public since last night. They call my name and I get up and start walking towards the doors to the gymnasium.

"Remember what Haymitch said about being sure to throw the weights," Katniss blurts out.

I smile a little before putting on my game face and turning back to her.

"Thanks. I will. You... shoot straight," I say before walking into the gymnasium.

The Gamemakers are seated in their stands, and I can tell they are tired of being there. Most of them look too drunk to know where they are, and the others are huddled in groups talking and singing. This isn't going to be good.

I walk up to the weight-lifting station and pick up a 100-pound weight. I get some momentum and throw it as far as I can, sending it into a dummy a few yards away, knocking it to the ground. I look up and see that only a handful of the Gamemakers are watching me. I get irritated, but try to focus on showing my strength to the few that are actually paying attention.

I pick up the 150-pound weight and throw it towards another dummy, sending it crashing to the floor, the weight crushing its chest. Lastly, I pick up the 200-pound weight, lift it over my head, and throw with every ounce of strength I have, knocking over the spear-throwing station, sending spears clanking all over the floor. "Thank you, Peeta Mellark," one of the Gamemakers say. I walk out of the gymnasium towards the elevator and push the button to go to the 12th floor. They won't let the tributes back into the cafeteria to talk to the tributes who haven't gone yet.

I hope I made a good enough impression. More importantly, I hope Katniss blows them away. She needs to be feared. They need to be so scared of her, they will leave her alone for fear of her killing them.

Please, Katniss. Make them think you're a cold-blooded killer.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

I get off the elevator where Haymitch, Effie, Cinna and Portia are waiting. They drill me with questions, but I don't really want to talk about it. The Gamemakers couldn't have cared less about what I was doing, so I'll be lucky to get a 4.

I hear the elevator about twenty minutes later, and I know it's Katniss returning from her evaluation. Haymitch and Effie call her to the sitting room, but she doesn't come. Instead, she runs down the hall and we hear a door slam.

We all exchange concerned glances, and Effie and Haymitch get up and go towards her room.

"I hope she's okay," I mumble.

A few minutes later, Haymitch and Effie come back.

"She's terribly upset about something. I could hear her crying. She told us to go away," Effie pouts.

"She'll be fine. She's a tough kid," Haymitch shrugs.

"Let's just give her some space," I say. I stand up and walk down the hall to my room. I decide to take a quick shower since I'm still sweaty from today's training and evaluation. I get out and slip on a red long-sleeve shirt and black jeans.

Effie calls me to dinner, so I finish drying my hair and then leave my room to go to the dining room. Everyone is there but Katniss. I sit down and after a few moments, Katniss comes into the room, her eyes still red from crying. What happened to her?

She sits down next to me and silently eats her soup. Everyone else starts making small talk while Katniss and I sit in silence. I look over to her, and she meets my gaze. I raise my eyebrows, silently asking her if she's okay, but she just shakes her head and looks away.

When the main course is brought out, Haymitch finally asks Katniss what everyone else is wondering. "Okay, enough small talk, just how bad were you today?"

She still looks fairly upset, so I decide to deflect the attention off of her.

"I don't know that it mattered. By the time I showed up, no one even bothered to look at me. They were singing some kind of drinking song, I think. So, I threw around some heavy objects until they told me I could go," I say.

"And you, sweetheart?" he asks Katniss.

She looks at him, and then angrily says, "I shot an arrow at the Gamemakers."

Everyone's jaw drops. "You what?" shrills Effie in horror.

"I shot an arrow at them. Not exactly at them. In their direction. It's like Peeta said, I was shooting and they were ignoring me and I just... I just lost my head, so I shot an apple out of their stupid roast pig's mouth!" she shouts.

"And what did they say?" Cinna asks.

"Nothing. Or I don't know. I walked out after that," Katniss says.

"Without being dismissed?" Effie gasps. If there is one thing Effie hates, it's bad manners.

"I dismissed myself," Katniss says.

"Well, that's that," Haymitch says, buttering a roll.

"Do you think they'll arrest me?" she asks.

"Doubt it. Be a pain to replace you at this stage," he replies.

"What about my family?" she asks nervously. "Will they punish them?"

That's why she was so upset. She's worried about what they would do to her family.

"Don't think so. Wouldn't make much sense. See, they'd have to reveal what happened in the Training Center for it to have any worthwhile effect on the population. People would need to know what you did. But they can't since it's secret, so it'd be a waste of effort. More likely they'll make your life hell in the arena," Haymitch explains. I think he's trying to make her feel better in his own, unorthodox way.

"Well, they've already promised to do that to us anyway," I say.

"Very true," Haymitch replies.

I look over at Katniss, who looks almost relieved. As long as she knows her family is safe, she doesn't care about what they do to her.

"What were their faces like?" Haymitch asks, laughing.

Katniss smiles a bit. "Shocked. Terrified. Uh, ridiculous, some of them. One man tripped backward into a bowl of punch."

We all start laughing except for Effie, but even she looks like she's about to smile.

"Well, it serves them right. It's their job to pay attention to you. And just because you come from District Twelve is no excuse to ignore you," Effie says, then looks a little scared, as though she's said something wrong. "I'm sorry, but that's what I think," she mumbles to herself.

"I'll get a very bad score," Katniss says, looking a little worried.

"Scores only matter if they're very good, no one pays much attention to the bad or mediocre ones. For all they know, you could be hiding your talents to get a low score on purpose. People use that strategy," Portia says.

"I hope that's how people interpret the four I'll probably get, if that. Really, is anything less impressive than watching a person pick up a heavy ball and throw it a couple of yards. One almost landed on my foot," I say.

Katniss smiles at me, a real smile. I'm nearly floored by how beautiful she is. She turns her attention back onto her food and begins to eat. We all dig in, and I'm enjoying my food a bit more knowing Katniss isn't so sad anymore.

After dinner, we go into the sitting room to watch the announcement of our scores on television. They start with Marvel, the male tribute from District 1, and then Glimmer, the female from District 1. Marvel scores a 9 and Glimmer scores an 8. They show District 2's scores, with Cato and Clove both receiving a score of 10. The tributes' scores continue to show, one by one, first the male then the female tribute of each district. Thresh, from District 11, pulls a 10, and tiny little Rue gets a 7, which really surprises me. What did she show the Gamemakers?

Then, it is District 12's turn. My picture comes up on the screen, and after a moment of anticipation, the number 8 flashes below it. Everyone is clapping and congratulating me, and then Katniss' picture comes up on the screen. Everyone goes silent, all fearing that Katniss is going to get a very low score, but then the number 11 comes up on the screen under her picture.

Katniss looks completely stunned, and everyone is on their feet, cheering and congratulating her on a job well done.

"There must be a mistake. How... how could that happen?" she asks Haymitch.

"Guess they liked your temper. They've got a show to put on. They need some players with some heat," he says.

"Katniss, the girl who was on fire," Cinna says while hugging her. "Oh, wait until you see your interview dress."

"More flames?" she asks.

"Of a sort," he replies mysteriously.

We congratulate each other on our scores and go to our rooms to get some rest. I lie in bed, so happy that Katniss pulled such a high score.

They'll think she's deadly. She got the highest score out of everyone, even the Careers. Good job, girl on fire.

I wake up early because I need to talk to Haymitch alone. I get up, shower, and get dressed quickly and make my way to Haymitch's room. I'm immediately assaulted by the smell of vomit, sweat and alcohol. Haymitch is sitting on his bed, looking restless as always.

"What do you want?" he asks me.

"We need to talk about my strategy. We still haven't talked about what we plan to do to save her," I say.

"Sit down, kid," he motions to a chair next to him.

"I've been thinking about the best way to approach this. First things first, you two need to be coached separately. You don't want her to know any of this, so you two need to be separated. That way we can think of a good strategy without her hearing about it," he says. "Secondly, we're going to tell her that training separately was your idea. She'll get mad at you and distance herself, which is the best thing right now. She can't know what is going on because she's not going to let you do it, and she definitely won't continue to play nice in front of everyone. Tell her to be nice, she'll bite your head off," he chuckles.

"Okay, fine," I say.

"We'll talk more later. Effie and I are coaching you today for your interviews tomorrow. I will get you for four hours for content and then Effie will help you for four hours in the presentation portion. Let's get to breakfast," Haymitch says.

We go into the dining room where Effie is sitting down at the table. Haymitch and I sit down and we inform her of my decision to train separately. She asks why and Haymitch tells her that I have secret skills I don't want Katniss to know about. Let's face it, Effie can't keep a secret, so we can't really trust her to let her in on the actual plan.

Katniss walks in and gets her food. She sits next to Effie and stares at all of us, probably wondering what we were talking about.

"So, what's going on? You're coaching us on interviews today, right?" she asks.

"That's right," Haymitch answers.

"You don't have to wait until I'm done. I can listen and eat at the same time," she says.

"Well, there's been a change of plans. About our current approach," Haymitch says cautiously.

Oh man, she's gonna hate me. It's gonna make her think I don't trust her and that we aren't a team after all.

"What's that?" she asks, looking a bit confused.

"Peeta has asked to be coached separately," he tells her nonchalantly.

Man, if looks could kill. She looks at Haymitch with such hatred for me and then relaxes her face into a blank stare.

"Good. So what's the schedule?" she says harshly, making it a point to avoid my gaze.

"You'll each have four hours with Effie for presentation and four with me for content. You start with Effie, Katniss," Haymitch tells us.

Effie leads Katniss down the hallway and Haymitch and I go into the sitting area.

"So, we are obviously going to portray you as likable. You're nice, generous, blah blah blah. So, that's that. Now. We need to do something to make Katniss look better to the sponsors. She's accomplished looking intimidating to the other tributes on her own by getting that training score of eleven. This interview isn't going to be a strong point for her because she's not a pleasant person to talk to," Haymitch explains.

"Okay. What can I do?" I ask him.

"You need to say something about her that is going to make her desirable to the sponsors. We have the hook in them with the opening ceremony and the training score, now we need to reel them in. You want her to get a lot of sponsors? Make them want her," he says.

Make them want her. I sit there and think about my options. What can I say about Katniss Everdeen to make the sponsors want to spend their money to help save her life? It has to be something big, something that will blow everyone away. Then I think of something. It will definitely draw all of the attention to her.

"I'll tell everyone at the interview about my feelings for her," I say.

Haymitch laughs, leaning back onto the couch. "You've got guts, kid. I like it," Haymitch says, still laughing.

The rest of the time with Haymitch consists of us talking about some small talk I can say before dropping the bomb of my love for Katniss. I'm relieved that I'm going to be able to help Katniss by doing this, though I'm not sure how she's going to react to it.

Katniss walks in, wearing a dress and high heels, looking very irritated. I get up and go to my room where Effie is waiting for me, looking as irritated as Katniss looked. She has me practice walking while wearing a suit and dress shoes. The shoes are pinching my feet and the suit is making me a little sweaty, but I do as she asks. She seems to cheer up, complimenting me on my posture and walk. She has me smile and just act happy to be there, which I do my best to portray. She seems happy with me and lets me be done an hour early. I sit in my room, waiting to be called to dinner.

My mind is so overwhelmingly full, but I try to just focus on my main objective, which is to tell the entire world that I love Katniss. I'm going to tell the world about something I've kept to myself for 11 years. I watched her walk home from school every day from the day she sang that song. I watched her deteriorate into a shell of her former self after her father died. I watched her pick herself up and risk her life to go into those woods. From my window, I watched her live her life, but I never said a word to her. Now, tomorrow, I will have to tell not only her, but everyone else in Panem.

Effie calls me to dinner and I get up and make my way into the dining room. Everyone is there except for Katniss, which doesn't surprise me. Haymitch said she would distance herself after she found out about me wanting to train separately. We eat dinner in relative silence, though every once in a while Effie makes a comment about what she is going to wear to the interviews tomorrow. Apparently, she can't decide between the pink dress or the blue one.

We finish dinner and I go to my room. I lie down and try to sleep. My heart and mind are racing. I hear a knock at my door, and I sit up. Haymitch walks in and closes the door behind him.

"I've been talking to the other stylists and mentors to try to get some insight into the strategies of the other tributes. I couldn't get much, obviously, but I did overhear a conversation District 1 and 2's mentors were having and from what I could hear, the Careers are going to target Katniss and get her out as soon as possible. Her score has put her on their radar and now she is enemy number one," he says, pausing. He sighs.

"I need you to do something you're not going to like. She's not going to understand it, and she will probably want you dead for it. You need to do it to ensure the Careers stay off of Katniss' trail," Haymitch says in a hushed tone.

"What do you want me to do?" I ask.

"You need to align yourself with the Careers in the arena," he says.

I stare at him in disbelief. "How in the world do you expect me to do that? They'll kill me on the spot!" I say.

"Tell them that she rejected you after the interview. That she's in love with someone else. That she laughed in your face and hasn't said a word to you since then. You need to convince them that you want her dead. That you can lead them right to her because you two trained together and you know all of her tricks. If you can pull this off, she'll be safe. She can take care of herself. You just keep the Careers away from her so she can keep herself alive, okay?"

I take a deep breath. "Okay."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

My prep team wakes me up early in the morning to start preparing me for the interviews. I shower and they scrub my entire body with a hard brush that makes my skin burn and turn a bright shade of red. Then I'm covered in a lotion that makes my skin smooth and shiny-looking. My prep team is bustling about, talking excitedly about the interviews tonight and what they are going to wear.

They style my hair, slicking it back out of my face. They apply makeup to my face, evening out my complexion, and then tend to my hands. They are scarred from the many times I got burned while working at the bakery. They shape my nails into uniform shapes and buff them, making them look shiny and healthier. Then, they put some kind of lotion on my hands that makes my scars far less visible. It upsets me a bit, seeing those scars almost disappear. Those are scars, but they're also memories of baking bread and cakes with my family. My family, who I'll never see again.

My stylist, Portia, comes in once the prep team has deemed me attractive enough. She has a garment bag in her hands and hangs it up and unzips it.

"This is your outfit for the interview tonight," she explains.

She pulls out a black suit. It's fairly simple except for the flame accents on it. I put it and my dress shoes on, relieved to find that the suit and shoes fit much better than the practice outfit Effie made me try on, which makes sense since this suit was tailored to fit me perfectly.

The prep team does final touches to my hair and face and then we go to the elevator. Haymitch and Effie are waiting, both dressed nicely. It's always a nice surprise to see Haymitch bathed and properly dressed in clean clothes, and I see that Effie decided to go with the blue dress, accented with a golden wig with a plastic bird nested on top of it.

A few moments later, Katniss, Cinna, and her prep team arrive at the elevator. Katniss looks beautiful in a jeweled dress that, when it hits the light, makes her look like she is on fire. Cinna has really outdone himself on this one. She looks mesmerizing. I try not to stare at her, because ever since she found out I wanted to be trained separately, she seems ready to kill me at any second. If she sees me looking at her, she'll probably attack me.

We get off of the elevator and Katniss and I go stand with the other tributes, who are being led onto the stage where we will all sit together while the interviews are being held. In the interviews, the girl from each district goes first, then the boy. District 1 goes first, as usual, and Katniss and I will go last.

Right before we walk onto stage to take our seats, Haymitch comes up behind us.

"Remember, you're still a happy pair. So act like it," Haymitch whispers.

I nod to him and take a deep breath. We walk onto stage and take our seats next to each other. Katniss is continuing to ignore me.

Caesar Flickerman walks onto the stage, with vibrant blue hair and matching eyelids. He wears the same twinkling blue suit every year, but he changes the color of his hair and eyelids for the "festivities" of the Games.

Caesar makes a few opening jokes to the audience and then gets down to business. He calls up Glimmer, the female tribute from District 1. She's obviously trying to portray sexiness, as she's wearing an impossibly short dress and winking to the crowd every once in a while.

Each tribute's interview lasts for 3 minutes, in which Caesar asks questions and tries to get some insight into our strategies. The interviews continue, and it is clear with every tribute what they are trying to portray. District 2's male is intimidating. District 5's female tribute is sly. Rue is cunning, commenting on how hard she is to catch, therefore she can't be counted out because she can't be killed if she isn't caught. Smart girl.

Thresh, the male tribute from District 11, comes off as terrifying. He's massive in stature and when asked questions, he only replies with yes or no. Some of the questions he doesn't even answer. He's one to watch. Definitely.

Then it is Katniss' turn. She walks up to the stage with a deer-in-headlights look. Stay calm, Katniss. She sits down and Caesar asks her what has impressed her the most since being in the Capitol.

She stares at him, as if she doesn't understand the question. She looks like she's about to panic, but then she finally speaks.

"The lamb stew," she stammers.

Everyone laughs, which gives me some hope.

"The one with the dried plums?" he asks her.

She nods her head. "Oh, I eat it by the bucketful," Caesar says, then turns to the audience, his hand on his stomach. "It doesn't show, does it?" he asks.

The audience shouts at him about how good he looks and they all applaud.

"Now, Katniss," Caesar says. "When you came out in the opening ceremonies, my heart actually stopped. What did you think of that costume?" he asks her.

She thinks for a moment. "You mean after I got over my fear of being burned alive?" she asks.

The audience laughs some more. She seems to relax a bit.

"Yes. Start then," says Caesar, laughing.

"I thought Cinna was brilliant and it was the most gorgeous costume I'd ever seen and I couldn't believe I was wearing it. I can't believe I'm wearing this, either. I mean, look at it!" she says.

She stands up and spins in a circle, showing the audience how the jewels sparkle in the light.

"Oh, do that again!" Caesar says.

Katniss lifts her arms and spins in circles while the audience cheers. After a few moments, she stops and grabs Caesar's arm.

"Don't stop!" he says.

"I have to, I'm dizzy!" she says, giggling.

"Don't worry, I've got you. Can't have you following in your mentor's footsteps," jokes Caesar.

The audience is laughing and the cameras focus on Haymitch, who laughs and waves the cameras away, pointing to Katniss as if to say, "focus on her."

"It's all right. She's safe with me. So, how about that training score. E-le-ven. Give us a hint what happened in there," Caesar begs.

She looks up at the Gamemakers, who are sitting on a balcony above the stage. "Um... all I can say, is I think it was a first."

The cameras focus on the Gamemakers, who are laughing and nodding.

"You're killing us! Details. Details," moans Caesar.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it, right?" Katniss asks the Gamemakers.

"She's not!" one of them shouts.

"Thank you. Sorry. My lips are sealed," Katniss says to Caesar.

Caesar makes an overly-dramatic sad face, then moves the interview along, taking on a serious tone. "Let's go back then, to the moment they called your sister's name at the reaping and you volunteered. Can you tell us about her?"

I can see the heartbreak on her face as her sister is brought up, and she definitely doesn't want to talk about it. "Her name's Prim. She's just twelve. And I love her more than anything."

Everyone in the audience is completely silent, hanging on to her every word.

"What did she say to you? After the reaping?" he asks.

She looks, almost in tears, down at the ground. "She asked me to try really hard to win."

"And what did you say?" Caesar asks her.

She sits silently for a second, staring at the floor. She finally looks up and locks her eyes on Caesar's, with a look of sheer determination on her face.

"I swore I would," she says in a voice laced with intimidating certainty.

"I bet you did," Caesar says to her and gently squeezes her shoulder. The buzzer goes off, signaling the end of her interview. "Sorry we're out of time. Best of luck, Katniss Everdeen, tribute from District Twelve."

She stands up and goes back to her seat next to me, the audience clapping wildly for the beloved girl on fire.

Caesar calls my name and I steadily make my way to the chair next to him, trying to look confident, though on the inside, I'm panicking.

Caesar and I exchange jokes and banter, making the audience laugh and clap. I compare the tributes to the breads that come from their districts and talk about how the Capitol showers make me smell like roses.

Then Caesar gives me a perfect doorway into the big announcement by asking me if I have a girlfriend. Okay, time to do this. Just be honest and say it.

I hesitate for a second, then shake my head no.

"Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on, what's her name?" he presses.

I sigh, ready to just get this over with. This is going to be so embarrassing. But what this does to me doesn't matter. This is for Katniss.

"Well, there is this one girl. I've had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I'm pretty sure she didn't know I was alive until the reaping."

Sounds of sympathy come from the audience.

"She have another fellow?" asks Caesar.

"I don't know, but a lot of boys like her," I say nervously.

"So, here's what you do. You win, you go home. She can't turn you down then, eh?" Caesar says.

"I don't think it's going to work out. Winning... won't help in my case," I say.

"Why ever not?" asks Caesar, confused.

Here we go. Now or never.

I can feel myself blushing. "Because... because..." I stammer. "She came here with me."


	9. Chapter 9

Part II

"The Games"

Chapter Nine

I can hear the shock resonate through the crowd, but I keep my eyes trained on the floor. I'm sure they've got the cameras locked on Katniss to see her reaction.

"Oh, that is a piece of bad luck," says Caesar sadly. I finally look up at him and I can see that he genuinely feels bad for me.

"It's not good," I say.

"Well, I don't think any of us can blame you. It'd be hard not to fall for that young lady," he says. Talking about my feelings for Katniss makes me feel depressed. Depressed for not telling her all of these years. Depressed knowing that I'm never going to get to be with her.

"She didn't know?" he asks.

"Not until now," I say nervously.

"Wouldn't you love to pull her back out here and get a response?" Caesar asks the audience. Oh, please no... The audience screams and claps, clearly wanting to know what Katniss thinks about this news.

"Sadly, rules are rules, and Katniss Everdeen's time has been spent. Well, best of luck to you, Peeta Mellark, and I think I speak for all of Panem when I say our hearts go with yours."

I stand up, thank Caesar, and awkwardly go back to my seat, making sure to avoid looking at Katniss at all costs. This is so embarrassing...

The crowd is roaring. I've definitely left an impression on them about Katniss and me. I have definitely outdone everyone.

They play the anthem signaling the end of the interviews and we all stand up and go back into the Training Center lobby towards the elevators. Katniss walks away from me and takes a different elevator, which is not good. She's definitely mad. I stand in the crowded elevator, feeling everyone staring at me but I try to ignore them. I'm lost in my own head, wondering what she's thinking about what I said.

I absentmindedly step out of the elevator on my floor and immediately I'm violently pushed backward. I fall onto an urn, which shatters into a million pieces under me. I land on my hands, which sends shards of glass stabbing into my palms.

"What was that for?" I shout at her, horrified.

"You had no right! No right to go saying those things about me!" she shouts back.

At that moment, the elevator doors open and Haymitch, Effie, Portia and Cinna step out and take in the scene of Katniss' outrage.

"What's going on?" Effie says, nearly hysterical with panic. "Did you fall?"

"After she shoved me," I say, annoyed. The pain in my hands is pretty substantial and I glance down at them to see about ten pieces of glass jutting out of my palms.

Effie and Cinna help me up and Haymitch turns to Katniss, annoyed.

"Shoved him?" Haymitch asks, annoyed.

"This was your idea, wasn't it? Turning me into some kind of fool in front of the entire country?" she snaps.

"It was my idea," I speak up as I pull the glass out of my hands. "Haymitch just helped me with it."

"Yes, Haymitch is very helpful. To you!" she says.

"You are a fool. Do you think he hurt you? That boy just gave you something you could never achieve on your own," Haymitch snaps at her.

"He made me look weak!" she exclaims.

"He made you look desirable! And let's face it, you can use all the help you can get in that department. You were about as romantic as dirt until he said he wanted you. Now they all do. You're all they're talking about. The star-crossed lovers from District Twelve!" Haymitch says.

"But we're not star-crossed lovers!" Katniss says.

Haymitch pins Katniss up against the wall by her shoulders. "Who cares? It's all a big show. It's all how you're perceived. The most I could say about you after your interview was that you were nice enough, although that in itself was a small miracle. Now I can say you're a heartbreaker. Oh, oh, oh, how the boys back home fall longingly at your feet. Which do you think will get you more sponsors?"

Katniss shoves Haymitch off of her and steps away from us. Cinna walks over to her and puts his arm around her. "He's right, Katniss," he says calmly.

"I should have been told, so I didn't look so stupid," Katniss says, seemingly calmer than before.

"No, your reaction was perfect. If you'd known, it wouldn't have read as real," explains Portia.

I didn't actually see Katniss' reaction. I couldn't bring myself to look at her after I said it. I almost regret saying it. I'm glad I did because it will really help Katniss. But I hate how she is reacting to it. Like it is such an awful thing for me to have feelings for her. Why is it bothering her so much? I find myself feeling angry at her. Then I think of a possible reason.

"She's just worried about her boyfriend," I say angrily, still pulling the glass shards from my hands.

She blushes, which makes me even more upset to think she might have feelings for Gale. "I don't have a boyfriend," she says.

"Whatever," I say. "But I bet he's smart enough to know a bluff when he sees it. Besides you didn't say you loved me. So what does it matter?" I snap.

It was very far from a bluff, but by how she is reacting, I decide to pretend I didn't mean it, that this is just a strategic move. I'm heartbroken at this point. She clearly doesn't feel the same way I feel. Probably the opposite.

I can see her relaxing, realizing that I was helping her, not sabotaging her. "After he said he loved me, did you think I could be in love with him, too?" she finally asks.

"I did. The way you avoided looking at the cameras, the blush," Portia says.

The others agree. "You're golden, sweetheart. You're going to have sponsors lined up around the block," Haymitch says.

Katniss glances over at me. "I'm sorry I shoved you."

"Doesn't matter. Although it's technically illegal," I shrug.

"Are your hands okay?" she asks me.

"They'll be all right," I say.

"Come on, let's eat," Haymitch says.

We all go into the dining room to eat. I notice my hands are still bleeding pretty heavily, so Portia volunteers to take me to get medical treatment.

Portia takes me to the elevators and we go to the bottom floor, where there is a medical room in case of injury. Portia and I lie, saying that I tripped when I stepped out of the elevator, landing on the urn and shattering it, since it is illegal to fight with other tributes before the Games. The medical team puts some kind of spray on my hands that speed up the healing process so that my hands will be pretty much completely healed by the time the Games begin, and then they put bandages over both of my hands.

"Take it easy for the next 24 hours. That is how long the spray takes to completely close the wounds," one of the medical staff members instructs.

Portia and I make our way back to the twelfth floor and then go back to our places at the dining table. I glance at Katniss, who is staring pitifully at my bandaged hands. I have a pang of guilt for getting so upset at her for pushing me. I can't imagine how she must've felt when she heard me profess my love for her.

We eat dinner in silence. Even Effie keeps to herself, which surprises me. She always has something to say. After dinner, we gather in the sitting room to watch the recap of the interviews. When it gets to me, I can see how nervous I am, though everyone is assuring me of how charming I was. I see me profess my love for Katniss and I get to see her reaction. She blushes and looks down at the ground. If I didn't know any better, I would say she loved me back. If I didn't know any better.

The recap finishes, and we are all silent once again. The tension in the air is thick enough to cut with a knife, and I desperately want to go to my room and be alone for a while. This is our last night until the Games. It starts at 10 tomorrow morning, so I need to get as much sleep as possible. We have no idea what the terrain in the arena will be; it's different every year. Hopefully it will be somewhere with some adequate places to hide, or sleep is going to be impossible to come by.

Effie and Haymitch have to say their goodbyes tonight, as they aren't allowed to come with us to the rooms where we wait until we are transferred to the arena. Effie takes our hands and wishes us well, tears welling in her eyes, making me think she might actually care about us. Then she ruins the moment by saying "I wouldn't be at all surprised if I finally get promoted to a decent district next year!"

She kisses our cheeks and leaves the room. Haymitch takes a deep breath and looks us both over.

"Any final words of advice?" I ask him.

"When the gong sounds, get the hell out of there. You're neither of you up to the blood bath at the Cornucopia. Just clear out, put as much distance as you can between yourselves and the others, and find a source of water," he says. "Got it?"

"And after that?" Katniss asks.

"Stay alive," he shrugs.

Haymitch leaves the room and then Katniss heads down the hallway. Cinna wishes me luck and leaves the room as well. Our stylists get to be in the room with us right before we go into the Games, but I still walk over to Portia, who is smiling at me. I could use a friend right now, and she's the closest person to a friend that I have here.

"It'll all be okay, Peeta," she says and gives me a quick hug.

"I hope so," I say, smiling sadly at her.

She kisses my cheek and leaves, and I go to my bedroom. I shower, washing off the makeup and whatever they put in my hair and put on a pair of sweatpants. I lie in bed, desperately trying to clear my head. Sleep. Just sleep. I try for a few hours to sleep, but I can't bring myself to do it. I finally doze off, with the thought in my head that tomorrow starts the event that will end my life.

It's still nighttime when I wake up, but I hear loud noises coming from outside. I try to block it out and go back to sleep but I can't bring myself to relax. I get out of bed, get dressed and decide to go onto the roof to clear my head.

I get out onto the roof, still hearing the loud noises I heard in my bedroom. I go to the ledge, where I can see a massive commotion on the ground below. Lights, tons of people, and plenty of cheering and hollering. They are celebrating the Hunger Games. In this moment, I'm glad to be from District 12 and not from here. I never want to be anyone but myself.

"You should be getting some sleep," someone says behind me.

I shake my head. "I didn't want to miss the party. It's for us, after all."

Katniss walks and stands next to me, looking down at the street below. "Are they in costumes?" she asks.

"Who could tell? With all the crazy clothes they wear here," I say. "Couldn't sleep, either?"

"Couldn't turn my mind off," she says.

"Thinking about your family?" I ask.

"No," she says quietly. "All I can do is wonder about tomorrow. Which is pointless, of course."

She looks down at my hands, which are still a bit sore. "I really am sorry about your hands."

I just want to tell her everything. That I meant what I said in the interview. That I plan on saving her life by giving up my own. But I can't.

"It doesn't matter, Katniss. I've never been a contender in these Games anyway."

"That's no way to be thinking," she says.

"Why not? It's true. My best hope is to not disgrace myself and..." I stop, trying to think of the right words.

"And what?" she asks.

"I don't know how to say it exactly. Only... I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?" I ask. She shakes her head, looking confused. "I don't want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I'm not."

She looks at me, taking in what I've said. She bites her lip, looking guilty for some reason. "Do you mean you won't kill anyone?" she asks.

"No, when the time comes, I'm sure I'll kill just like everybody else. I can't go down without a fight. Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to... to show the Capitol they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games," I say.

"But you're not. None of us are. That's how the Games work," she says.

"Okay, but within that framework, there's still you, there's still me. Don't you see?" I say, trying to make her understand what I mean.

"A little. Only... no offense, but who cares, Peeta?"

"I do. I mean, what else am I allowed to care about at this point?" I ask angrily. I look into those beautiful grey eyes, hoping she will give me an answer I want to hear. Tell me to care about you, Katniss. Tell me that so I can tell you just how much I do care.

She steps back. "Care about what Haymitch said. About staying alive," she says.

I smile at her, trying to hide my sadness. "Okay. Thanks for the tip, sweetheart."

She squints at me angrily. "Look, if you want to spend the last hours of your life planning some noble death in the arena, that's your choice. I want to spend mine in District Twelve." Oh you have no idea what I have planned for the arena.

"Wouldn't surprise me if you do. Give my mother my best when you make it back, will you?" I say sarcastically, but with a hint of the sadness I'm feeling.

"Count on it," she says, then storms off back into the building.

I stay on the roof for a few more minutes, breathing in the cold, fresh air. I go back into my room and lie down, happily surprised to find that I'm exhausted. I slip into unconsciousness, dreaming of my future alliance with the people who want to kill the girl I love.

Portia wakes me up early in the morning and gives me a tee shirt and sweatpants to put on. "We'll get you into your arena outfit when we get to the catacombs."

She leads me onto the roof where a hovercraft is waiting. I step onto the ladder and I'm immediately frozen, not able to move a muscle. The ladder pulls back into the hovercraft where a woman is waiting.

"I'm going to insert your tracker into your arm and then the current will release you from the ladder," she explains. She sticks a needle into my forearm and inserts the tracker that will be able to tell the Gamemakers where I am in the arena at all times. I'm released from the ladder and led to a room with breakfast laid out.

Portia joins me a few moments later and we eat in silence. I eat as much as I can without feeling overly full. I need to be full enough to where I can go a while in the arena without eating, in case I can't find food right away, but I don't need to be so full to the point where I can't run without throwing it all up. Who knows, the Careers might laugh in my face and chase me around the arena until they kill me. I need to be able to run for a while.

We finish breakfast and a few minutes later, the windows of the hovercraft go black, suggesting that we are nearing the arena. We aren't allowed to see what the arena is until we are actually in it.

The hovercraft lands and Portia and I are led back to the ladder that freezes me to it until I'm safely on the ground. We are put into a tube that leads underground into the Launch Room, where each tribute waits in their own room until we are sent up into the arena by a tunnel leading directly from our rooms.

The Launch Room is fairly large, with its own bathroom and shower. Portia suggests that I take a shower and clean myself up since I won't get a proper shower in the arena. I take one, but I can't focus on getting clean. I'm about to be thrown into a fight to the death, and Haymitch has told me to walk up to the biggest dogs and hope they don't bite.

I get out of the shower and Portia hands me the outfit I will wear in the arena. It is fairly simple, with undergarments, tawny pants with a brown belt, a green tee shirt, a black jacket with a hood and black boots. I put the clothes on and Portia slides the jacket on, her hands pausing on my shoulders.

"I am so proud of you, Peeta. You are an incredibly brave person," she says and hugs me. Something tells me that Haymitch might have clued her in on what my plan is. All I can do is hug her back.

"I'm not sure what the arena will be. But based on the material of this jacket, I would say it's somewhere cold. This jacket is designed to reflect your body heat. So I would try really hard not to lose this, especially if you can't get your hands on a blanket or sleeping bag," she says.

"Thank you. That information is going to be really helpful," I say, smiling kindly at her. I'm thankful for Portia. She has done her best to help me do what I need to do, which is all I could've asked for. She has gone beyond that by giving me advice and genuinely acting like she cares. I never thought anyone in the Capitol gave the tributes a second thought about being an actual human being, but after this experience, my opinion on a few people has changed.

We walk over to the couch and sit together while I continue to drink water, because I have no idea how often I will get the luxury of water in the arena. I need to be prepared. Portia tells me that she has been hearing about sponsors tripping over each other to get to Haymitch to sponsor Katniss and me. That lifts my spirits, and I hope that we get good enough gifts in the arena to keep us alive. I need to stay alive as long as I can so I can protect her. I don't want her to be alone in there. Not any longer than she needs to be.

A voice announces that it is time for the tributes to stand in our tunnels to be lifted into the arena. I take a deep breath, chug the rest of the water in my cup, and walk into my tunnel.

"I believe in you, Peeta. You can do this," Portia says encouragingly, smiling sadly.

I stand on the metal circular plate that will lift me into the arena and put on my game face. I clench my fists and take on a hard, determined look. The plate begins to lift me up and I look straight ahead, blocking everything else out except for the singular thought of protecting Katniss. I'm lifted into darkness for a few moments, then I am blinded by sunlight. I squint my eyes, trying to adjust to the brightness. I see the other tributes surrounding the Cornucopia, which is filled with a mound of weapons and survival items such as tents and backpacks.

When we are all lifted into the arena, we hear the announcer, Claudius Templesmith.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

We have to stay on our pedestals for sixty seconds. If someone steps off the circle any earlier, they are blown to bits by bombs buried around their platform. I use this sixty seconds to take in my surroundings. I see a lake and a steep drop-off into who knows what. But most of the arena is dense, green forest. Katniss will be good in this. She knows the woods.

I look at the ring of tributes, trying to find Katniss. I see her and she looks like she's about to run straight to the Cornucopia instead of away from it. She glances over at me and I shake my head at her, trying to tell her not to go to the Cornucopia. It is always a bloodbath at the beginning of each Games. People fight over the weapons and then kill as many people as they can before they have the chance to run and hide, and Katniss is enemy number one for the Careers, and the bloodbath is the perfect opportunity to kill her early.

The gong sounds, signaling that we can move off of our platforms and I run straight for the woods, deciding to hide in the tree line until the bloodbath is over so I can confront the Careers. I see Katniss fighting for a backpack with a boy. I glance over and see Clove has noticed Katniss out in the open. She throws a knife into the boy's back and aims another one right for Katniss' head.

I'm about to run out to help her but she stops the knife by using the backpack she grabbed as a shield and she runs off into the woods. I wait in the tree line, watching the horrifying scene before me. The Careers, who are made up of the tributes from Districts 1, 2 and 4 are mercilessly killing everyone at the Cornucopia. We have always been required to watch the Games every year on television, but seeing this happen in person is so different. I can smell the blood, hear the screaming and pleading. But the Careers continue to murder everyone in sight, using knives, spears, and any other weapon they can get their hands on.

After what seems like forever, the bloodbath is finally over. The Careers sit down in the Cornucopia, taking a break before sifting through all of the supplies.

Now or never. I slowly walk out of the woods with my hands raised to show that I'm not armed. Cato is the first to notice me and alerts everyone else. They all stand, but I'm surprised to find they don't immediately try to attack me. They just watch as I make my way over to them. I notice the boy from District 4 isn't there with them. Did he die in the bloodbath?

"Well, well, well. Hello lover boy," Cato says, amused.

"What is this?" Clove demands.

I take a deep breath. "I know you want Katniss out. I'm sure everyone does. You all are clearly the strongest. You are the only ones who can take her on, and I'm the only one who knows how to find her. She and I trained together, and I know her pretty well," I say calmly.

"What happened to being madly in love with her?" sneers Glimmer.

"She laughed in my face. She even pushed me and I landed in broken glass. Look," I say, showing them my hands, which aren't completely healed yet.

They all laugh and Cato shrugs. "Okay. You help us find her and we won't kill you. Deal?"

"Deal," I say.

Cato smirks and sets down his weapons. He stands up and casually walks over to me then punches me in the face. I stagger back, completely caught off guard. I try to punch back but he deflects it and kicks my leg as hard as he can, knocking me to the ground. He punches me in the face over and over until I think I'm gonna pass out. The others are laughing and cheering Cato on, and he continues to punch and kick me.

Cato starts laughing and grabs a knife. He presses it to my forearm and slides it across, opening a gash. I grit my teeth, trying to hide how much pain I'm in.

Cato stands up and wipes the blood from the knife. "That is a warning. If you try to kill one of us or if you're lying to us, I WILL kill you. Slowly and painfully. Got it?"

"You could've just said that instead of beating the crap out of me," I mumble angrily. I stand up and feel blood trickling out of my nose. The girl from District 4 gets a first aid kit from the Cornucopia, bandages my arm and looks me over.

"Your nose isn't broken, and neither is your leg. But you're going to be very bruised and very sore," she says and leans in towards me. "I'm sorry about that. He's a scary guy," she whispers.

I shrug and wipe the blood off my face. I can already feel that I'm gonna have a nice collection of bruises.

"Okay, that part is over with," Clove says, annoyed. "You should've saved your strength for a bigger threat, like Katniss or Thresh."

"I have plenty of strength to go around," Cato jokes, flexing his arms.

"Anyways," Marvel says, rolling his eyes. "What weapon do you prefer?"

"Knife. I'm pretty good at hand-to-hand combat," I say.

The girl from District 4 grabs a knife and hands it to me. It's sturdy, made of steel with grooves on one side and a smooth blade on the other. After sifting through the supplies, we each grab a bottle and walk over to the lake to fill them while the hovercraft comes and collects the dead bodies. After they're gone, we walk back to the Cornucopia and divide some of the supplies among the six of us.

We each get a backpack, weapon of our choice to use, and some food. We each get our share of crackers, dried beef, dried fruits, rolls, and fresh apples. We put our supplies into our backpacks and get ready to head into the woods to try to find some tributes who haven't hidden themselves yet.

"District 12 and I can stay and protect the supplies," the District 4 girl says.

I nod in agreement. "Yeah, I'm a little banged up," I say angrily, looking at Cato. He rolls his eyes and scoffs. The District 4 girl and I sit next to the supplies as the others head into the woods. Cato is armed with a sword, Clove has throwing knives, Marvel has a spear and Glimmer has a bow and a sheath of arrows. As they're heading in, the cannons start to sound, signaling each tribute's death so far. I count them, and after eleven, the cannon stops. That means there are thirteen tributes left. I silently hope Katniss hasn't died already, though I doubt she has. She knows the woods like the back of her hand. And she can hunt.

"Thanks for the help earlier," I say after the others are gone. "You didn't have to do that."

"Well, Cato didn't have to do what he did either, but look what happened," she says, kicking at a mound of dirt.

"What happened to the boy from your district?" I ask her.

"Took a knife in the back. I think it was Thresh. He got up here pretty fast and grabbed some decent stuff. I guess Kane got in his way," she says, trailing off at the end. "Your name is Peeta, right? I haven't really gotten the chance to hear your real name. Everyone I've been hanging out with has called you Lover Boy."

"Yeah, my name's Peeta. What's your name?" I ask.

"Lenore. But everyone calls me Lenny," she says.

"Well, Lenny. You seem to be slightly more friendly than a Career tribute is known to be," I say.

"Yeah, well I don't like seeing a kid who is just trying to help us get the crap beat out of him. I'm sorry she turned you down. You seem like a good guy," she says.

I feel a pang of guilt that she is being so nice to me based on my lie of wanting Katniss dead. We sit in silence the rest of the time, watching for anyone coming out of the woods.

After about an hour, we see Cato, Clove, Marvel and Glimmer come back out of the woods. Cato is pulling a boy alongside him by his arm. He pulls the boy over to one of the pedestals. "If we were to dig these mines up, would you be able to reactivate them?" he asks.

"Um, yeah. I think so," he says.

Cato jerks him and gets in his face. "I need you to be sure, or you're useless to me," he growls.

"Okay, okay. Yes, I can," the boy says shakily.

"What's going on?" Lenny asks.

"This guy is from District 3. He says he can reactivate these mines around the pedestals. That way we can put them around our supplies to keep them safe from anyone wanting to steal anything from us," Clove says.

We start the tedious task of digging up all of the mines surrounding the 24 pedestals and setting them next to the Cornucopia.

"Okay. Now move all of the supplies over here, in a pile," Cato orders.

We do as we're told and about an hour later, the supplies are neatly stacked into a mound about twenty yards from the Cornucopia.

"Dig holes around the pile where I've placed markers," Cato orders.

We look around, noticing he has placed pieces of an extra backpack that he cut up around the pile, in a seemingly random pattern. We obey, and we all dig the holes. After we finish, we go over to Cato and the District 3 boy, who are working to reactivate the mines. One by one, we walk a mine over to a hole we dug, set it in the hole, and he reactivates it. Then we carefully cover the mine with dirt.

"I found these while we were moving the supplies. They'll help us see in the dark so we can hunt at night," Marvel says. "There are only two pairs, so we'll give them to the two strongest people on our team." He hands them to Cato and Clove, who both scored a 10 in training.

"You're sure those mines will protect our supplies, kid?" Glimmer asks.

"Yeah. I'm sure. Anyone who doesn't know the layout of the mines will definitely step on one and they will get blown sky-high. I told Cato where to put the mines, and they are far enough back that if someone were to set one off, the others would not go off and the supplies would be okay," the boy explains.

"Stay here. Just in case," Lenny says to him.

"Yeah," Cato agrees, nodding.

We get our packs together, refill our water bottles, and wait for the nightly death recap. As soon as it gets dark, the anthem begins to play. The pictures of the deceased are shown in the sky.

The girl from District 3. The boy from 4. The boy from 5. Both from 6 and 7. The boy from 8. Both from 9. And the girl from 10. All of those people are dead. They never get to live another day... I'm relieved, though, to see that Katniss is still alive. Hang in there, girl on fire. Stay alive.

We comb through the woods, with everyone holding a torch or flashlight except for Cato and Clove, who have the sunglasses on that help you see in the dark. I'm so tired, cold and sore but I try to block everything out. I can't seem weak, especially to them.

It's just before dawn, and we're about to head back to camp when we see a fire spark. It looks to be about half a mile away. The Careers laugh and break into a run towards the fire, and I follow closely behind. We get to the person who started the fire. I think she is from District 8.

She pleads. Begs for her life. Cato stabs her right in the chest and she slumps over. Clove laughs and yells, "Twelve down and eleven to go!" Cato, Glimmer and Marvel cheer and clap, and Lenny and I follow suit. I hate celebrating someone's death. It's disgusting. But I have to. I need to keep their trust.

"Better clear out so they can get the body before it starts stinking," Cato says. We all agree and walk away so the hovercraft can come pick up the body.

We wait a few minutes, but we don't hear a cannon signaling her death.

"Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?" Glimmer asks.

"I'd say yes. Nothing to prevent them from going in immediately," Lenny replies.

"Unless she isn't dead," Marvel says.

"She's dead. I stuck her myself," Cato snaps.

"Then where's the cannon?" Marvel asks sarcastically.

"Someone should go back. Make sure the job's done," Clove says.

"Yeah, we don't want to have to track her down twice," Marvel says.

"I said she's dead!" Cato yells, annoyed.

They all start to argue on whether she is dead or not. I start to get nervous that we've been in the woods for so long. I'm sure Katniss is around here somewhere and I don't want the Careers anywhere near her.

"We're wasting time! I'll go finish her and let's move on!" I yell.

"Go on then, Lover Boy," Cato says. "See for yourself."

I walk back to where the girl is. She is lying in a pool of blood, barely alive, sobbing.

I kneel down next to her. "I'm so sorry... I'm so, so sorry..." I whisper to her, pushing her hair behind her ear. I stab her in the neck, remembering someone saying how fast that can kill someone. I wait until I'm sure she is dead, and then make my way back to the Careers.

"Was she dead?" Cato asks impatiently.

"No. But she is now," I say. The cannon sounds, signaling the end of her life. "Ready to move on?" I say, trying not to show the devastation I feel over killing an innocent girl. Everyone nods and we run back towards the camp.

We get back to camp, where District 3 is sitting in the Cornucopia, watching the pile of supplies.

"Nobody came that I saw. I thought I heard something but I never saw anyone," he says.

"Okay. Let's take turns taking a quick rest and we'll refill our supplies and get back out there," Cato says.

"Let Peeta rest. He has some injuries that need to heal," Lenny says, giving Cato a disapproving look.

Cato rolls his eyes. "Whatever. I'll stay up and you guys get some rest. Precious little Lover Boy can sleep the whole time while the rest of take turns being on watch."

I don't protest, because I am pretty sore from my injuries and I'm exhausted from walking for hours. We each grab a sleeping bag from the pile of supplies, being careful not to step on one of the scattered mines.

I lay down in my sleeping bag, noticing that I've significantly warmed up. It must reflect body heat like my jacket does. After about ten minutes of tossing and turning, I finally drift off to sleep, hoping that one of these people doesn't kill me in my sleep.

I wake up, sweating. I look around me and see that everyone is awake. I get up and go over to the group, who are getting ready to go back into the woods.

"Well, look who decided to wake up," Clove says menacingly. I can tell she is completely against me being there with them.

"Heading back out?" I ask. They nod. "I'm coming. Give me a minute."

I refill my bottle of water at the lake and put more food in my pack. We all ate the food we put in our packs last night when we were in the woods. We should probably conserve our food in case we run out before the end of the Games, but I don't want to say anything to help them unless it has to do with helping Katniss. We head back into the woods. It looks to be mid-afternoon based on the sun.

"The only person I want to find today is Katniss. Everyone else is weak and will die off on their own. Except for Thresh, who I saw run towards the drop-off. I walked over there during my watch to see what it was. It's a huge field of grass taller than any of us. It's too dangerous to go out there, so we'll wait for him to come to us," Cato says. "So, Lover Boy. Where should we look?"

I have to say something convincing. Some kind of truth and hopefully Katniss will be able to stay away from us. "Well, she hasn't come out of the woods, so she's probably been looking for a source of water," I say.

"She got a backpack. That might've had some water in it," Clove says.

"Well, it's a better lead than nothing. Let's go," Cato says.

I won't tell them that she's good with a bow and arrow. And I won't tell them the woods are her second home.

We scan the woods, looking for any signs of water and Katniss. We go deeper and deeper into the woods, but we can't find either one. Cato suggests we loop back around and we all agree. We turn back around and continue to comb the woods, but there is no sign of her or any other tribute.

Cato sighs angrily. "Let's just go back to camp. I'm hungry and bored."

We head back to camp and they all go straight for the food. I sit down, wondering what their plan is when their food supply runs out. They haven't been rationing it at all since the Games started. Probably because they're used to having as much food as they need.

"I can't wait until I win," Cato beams maliciously.

The others laugh, rolling their eyes.

"I'm going to buy the nicest clothes money can buy. I'll look like a king!" Cato says, pushing his chest out.

"Who says you're going to win, Mr. Ego?" Clove says, annoyed. "It could be any of us. We're all pretty strong." She glances over at me. "Well, most of us."

I ignore her, looking down at my pack, zipping and unzipping it, wondering if Katniss is doing okay.

The Careers get into a heated argument on who is going to win.

"I'm a pro with the spear. One good throw and I could take out three people at once!" Marvel boasts.

"What are you going to do if you miss? I have a dozen knives I can throw, one after another. And I never miss," Clove says, smirking.

"Oh, please. Nobody is going to win without a lot of sponsors, and since I'm clearly the most attractive person here, I'll get loads of gifts," Glimmer says, flipping her hair.

They continue to argue, each person convinced that they could easily win the Hunger Games. Even after the sun sets, they are arguing on who is the prettiest, strongest and fastest. I roll my eyes, tired of all of the egos, and go lay down in a sleeping bag, hoping that I can separate myself from these lunatics soon.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

When I wake up, it's morning, and everyone else is asleep except for Lenny.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Lenny says, smiling.

"What are you doing up? Didn't you get any sleep?" I ask, stretching.

"A little. It's hard for me to sleep around them. I feel like an outsider to them, you know? I mean, I'd love to win, but I don't love the thought of killing people to do it," she says.

"I know what you mean. It's just odd hearing it come from a Career," I say, frowning.

"Yeah, I've always been very different from everyone in my district," she says. "I mean, I was always taught to not be afraid of killing, that I would have to do it eventually if I were to go into the Games, so I'm not scared to do it. I just can't keep out the thought that they all have families somewhere. But I know I can't think like that here, so I have to block it out," Lenny says. "I just wish we could find Katniss already and kill her so they will shut up," she says, motioning over to the other Careers.

"Yeah, I'd like that to happen soon," I say. I look away, trying not to give away that I'm lying.

"I mean, one thing that I do agree with is that she is such a brat," she says, rolling her eyes. "Twirling in that frilly dress, somehow scoring an 11 in training, and making a fool out of you after you said you love her on television."

"Yeah," I say absentmindedly.

"Good morning," someone says behind us. I turn around to see boy from District 3 walking towards us. I should really find out his name.

"Hey," Lenny and I say.

"Weird. I expected you guys to be really rude to me like everyone else is being," he laughs nervously. "I keep waiting for one of you to kill me. Super glad I'm still alive though."

I laugh. "You're useful. They won't kill you if you're useful to them. That's why I'm still alive."

"Oh, yeah. Right. They want Katniss," he says. "Isn't she your girlfriend?"

I clear my throat. "No, she isn't," I say as coldly as I can manage.

"Oh, sorry man," he mumbles, frowning. "Sorry about your district partner, by the way," he says to Lenny.

"Oh, it's okay. I mean, there can only be one winner. He had to go sometime," she says. "Sorry about yours, too."

"Yeah. She was a good friend of mine. Cato got her with a sword," he says. "When he came up to me in the woods, I thought I was a goner for sure. I'm just not looking forward to when I'm not useful anymore. Maybe I should run away before they kill me."

"Oh, we'll catch you," Lenny says dismissively.

The boy's eyes widen. "I'm, uh, gonna go get some food. See you guys later," he says, heading over the pile of supplies.

I hear yawns, and see that the others are waking up. "Ugh, I need a shower," moans Glimmer.

"A shower sounds so good right now," Marvel says, stretching.

They all go over and grab some fruit for breakfast and sit with Lenny and me.

"So, who's left out here?" Clove asks. "We need to make a strategy and see who's worth hunting and who isn't."

"I only want to hunt Katniss," Cato growls.

"Cato, shut up. She is our number one target, yes, but there are others to kill too," Clove says, rolling her eyes. "Now. Who is left?"

"Us, District 10's male, the two from District 11, the girl from District 5 and Katniss," Cato says.

"Okay, we should comb the woods today for anyone, and we'll kill as many as we can today. None of them seemed too smart, so they probably aren't hidden very well," Marvel shrugs.

They completely underestimated the remaining tributes because when we go out to hunt for them, we can't find a single one.

"Where are they?" Cato yells, throwing his sword on the ground.

"Must be smarter than we thought," I say, shrugging. Katniss is probably climbing trees and hiding. The redheaded girl from District 5 seemed very smart, so she's probably in a good hiding place as well. I don't really know about the others.

"Thresh ran into the field. Let's go see if we can see him. I know we said before that it's too dangerous, but we aren't finding anyone here, so maybe we can at least get him. He seems pretty strong so we should take him out as soon as possible," Clove says, and we head back towards the Cornucopia.

When we reach the field, Cato walks a few feet into it. The grass comes up to his chest and there are no signs of Thresh.

"Cato, get out of there. We have no idea what's in this grass," Glimmer says, pulling on Cato's arm. "He has to come out of there sometime. I don't see any water in here."

"Whatever," Cato says, jerking his arm away and stomping off towards the lake.

"Someone's throwing a temper tantrum," Clove yells after him, but he ignores her.

We all follow him and sit next to the lake, refilling our water bottles.

"We need to focus on finding Katniss. First of all, we don't know how in the world she got a score of 11. Lover boy, do you have any idea?" Cato growls.

"No, she never talked to me about it. She told Haymitch she wanted to be trained separately, so I never got to hear her strategy," I shrug.

"You two seemed pretty close before the interviews. You're telling me she didn't tell you a single thing about it?" Marvel says, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

"We never talked about our strategy. She always talked about her family," I say.

"Oh yeah, her sister Plum. The one she volunteered for," Clove sneers.

"Prim," I correct her.

"Who cares? It would have been so much easier to kill that little twerp instead of Katniss," Clove mumbles.

"What would she usually do every day back in District 12?" Lenny asks.

"Go to school. Go to the market to get food and clothes. Nothing special, just what everyone else does in 12," I say, trying to make her seem as ordinary as possible to downplay how dangerous she is. "I really don't know how she got a score of 11. She really isn't anything special."

"Apparently, you thought she was special," Glimmer laughs. "You told the whole world how in love with her you are."

"Yeah, I was in love with her," I say, looking down at the ground.

"Aw, Lover Boy got his heart broken," Cato taunts, laughing.

I clench my fists, fighting the urge to run into the woods, away from these monsters, but I have to stay until I know they will leave Katniss alone. But I also have to stay useful to them, or they'll kill me.

"She has to be in the woods. Since she hasn't come out since the Games started, there is probably water and food out there. She did really well at the edible plants station of training, so she has probably been eating berries and leaves and she probably found some sort of pond to drink from," I say. "If we keep combing the woods, we will find her. She can't hide forever."

"I don't want to talk about Katniss anymore. She bores me," Clove shrugs. "What about the others? Does anyone know anything about them?"

"The redheaded girl from District 5. She seemed very smart in training," I say.

"The girl from District 11. She scored a 7. She must have some trick up her sleeve," Marvel says.

"What about the boy from District 10?" Clove asks.

"He had a deformed foot or something," the boy from District 3 says. "Maybe that will slow him down."

"It's getting late. We need to get some sleep if we're going to spend all day hunting," Cato says, standing up. We all walk over to our sleeping bags and lay down, with Clove taking the first shift. I've never had to stay up and keep watch. I think it's because they don't trust me. If that's why, then they're smarter than I thought. If I could, I would kill them all right now.

We wake up at dawn and prepare for a day of hunting the remaining tributes. We fill all of our water bottles and pack plenty of food. I put my iodine bottle in my pocket to make room for another water bottle in my pack. We grab first aid kits and the two pairs of glasses to help us see in case we are still out when it gets dark. Cato tells the District 3 boy to stay and guard our supplies and to kill anyone who comes out of the woods or field.

We head into the woods and begin searching. We spread out a little to cover more ground, but we stay close enough together to still be able to see each other.

"Let's take a quick snack break," Marvel groans, rubbing his stomach after a few hours of searching. "I'm starving."

Right when we group back together to take a break, I hear a whistling sound. Marvel yells to get down, but I can't do it fast enough. Something bright and very hot skids across my chest. I fall to the ground, pain searing deep into my body. I smell burnt clothing and worst of all, burning flesh. I'm no stranger to the smell of things burning, but nothing could prepare me for this.

I realize I'm groaning in pain and I can feel people carrying me. I'm going in and out of consciousness, and I think I get dropped a couple of times. I still hear the whistling noises, and I hear people screaming and groaning. I black out again, only being able to focus on the unbearable burning on my chest.

When I finally come to, all I can see are trees. I hear someone calling my name. I look over and Lenny is kneeling next to me. I sit up and look around. Everyone looks like they're in pretty bad shape. They all have burns. I look down and see a large burn going across my chest.

"Ouch," I mumble.

"Get up. We have to go. Katniss has to be close. That fire storm drew everyone together," Cato says, jerking me up by my arm.

"Here. Put some of this on your burn," Lenny says, handing me some cream.

I tenderly put the cream on my chest and am rewarded with a cooling sensation.

"Let's go!" Cato yells.

We all follow him as we continue on our trek to find Katniss. We're all coughing from smoke inhalation and we aren't moving as fast as we were. Afternoon turns into evening, and I'm getting restless. I need to sleep, I need some time to recouperate, but Cato is refusing to stop until we find her. And find her we do.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

I can tell that she's hurt by the way she's running, but she's still much faster than we are. By time we reach her, she's climbed a tree. Pretty high up, too. The Careers are laughing, excited that they've finally caught the person they've been searching for this whole time.

I look up at Katniss who looks scared, then she takes on a new emotion. Is she... smiling?

"How's everything with you?" she yells happily.

I look at Cato, who looks confused for a second, then smiles back at her. "Well enough. Yourself?"

"It's been a bit warm for my taste," she says. "The air's better up here. Why don't you come on up?" What is she thinking??

"Think I will," Cato says darkly.

"Here, take this, Cato," Glimmer says, offering the bow and arrows.

"No. I'll do better with my sword," Cato says, grinning.

He starts climbing the tree. As he starts climbing, Katniss starts to climb too. She climbs impossibly high. Cato snarls and keeps climbing. He grabs a limb to hoist himself up and it snaps, sending him back down to the ground. He lands on his back and lays there a second. I think he may be dead, but then he gets up, swearing and snarling at Katniss.

Glimmer decides to try to climb the tree. She's smaller than Cato, so she might have a better chance of the limbs bearing her weight. She stops about 20 feet up and decides to try to shoot Katniss with an arrow from there. She gets positioned and shoots one, hitting the tree instead of Katniss, like I expected. I saw Glimmer use the bow a few times in training, and she's not that good. At all.

Katniss yanks the arrow out of the tree and tauntingly waves it at them. She doesn't think they can reach her. But now they know she can climb trees. They'll know where to look now. They don't need me. But Katniss needs me. So I need to keep them interested in me... But how?

Glimmer climbs back down and we huddle in a circle.

"We need our smallest person to get up there," Marvel says.

"We need the strongest up there. There's no telling how she got that 11 in training. We don't know what to expect," Clove says.

Then an argument breaks out on how we should go about getting to her.

"Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning," I say, trying to sound like there is nothing more in this world I want more than for Katniss to die.

They all agree, looking impressed at my idea, and begin to settle down for the night. Cato sets up a watch system, with Glimmer going first and waking up Clove when the moon peaks. Everyone settles in and falls asleep, except for Glimmer and me. I pretend to be asleep and carefully watch the Careers and Katniss, making sure Katniss is okay and also watching for the Careers to make any kind of surprise attack on one or both of us. About 30 minutes into her watch, Glimmer falls asleep, slumped up against the tree that Katniss is trapped in.

I lay there, keeping my eyes on Katniss. I wonder what injuries she has and if they are as bad as mine. Was there any kind of first aid kit in the backpack she managed to grab?

I try to think of a way I'll be able to get the Careers away from here when they wake up. I told them to stay so they wouldn't kill me. Now how do I get them to leave to keep Katniss safe?

A million ideas run through my mind, and I can't think of a single thing except for trying to kill them in their sleep. The anthem starts, signaling the death recap. I don't pay much attention because there weren't any deaths today.

I try to think about how to do that without waking the others up. I have to kill them one by one. Cato first, then Clove. They are the strongest. I have to do it fast, so they don't wake the others.

It's dawn now, with pink streaks spreading across the sky as the sun rises. I glance up at Katniss, who is higher up in the tree now than she was. What is she doing?

She seems to be sawing at a tree branch. Is she going to drop the tree branch on us? I sit up and try to get a clearer view. I see it on the end of the branch, just as it detaches from the tree. It's a nest.

The branch comes plummeting down to the ground, the nest breaking open upon impact. I see their golden bodies and I immediately get up and start running as fast as I can back towards our camp by the lake. Those are tracker jackers, a genetically mutated wasp the Capitol created and placed in the districts as a weapon. Their stings can create hallucinations and even death. Cato, Marvel and Clove are close behind me, yelling and swatting at the tracker jackers.

"To the lake! To the lake!" Clove screams.

I hear the buzzing and know that the tracker jackers have caught up to me. I feel stings, one after another. I run even faster than I knew I could run, and when I get to the lake, I jump in and submerge. After I can't hold my breath any longer, I jump out and without thinking, I run back into the woods towards Katniss. I can't keep Katniss safe from the Careers anymore. They know she can climb, they probably suspect something about how happy she was to get that arrow. I need to go to her now, not stay with them. I pick up a spear that's laying on the ground; it was probably dropped in the frantic run to the lake. I'm running back to her when I notice that I hear someone running behind me. I look over my shoulder and see Cato bounding towards me.

"Where are you going, Lover Boy?" he huffs.

I ignore him and push forward, trying to get to Katniss before he does.

I pass by a body, and though the face is swollen beyond recognition, I can tell that it's Lenny from her brown hair.

I get a bit of a lead when Cato trips over Lenny's body and I push through the brush to find Katniss at Glimmer's swollen body, trying to get the bow and arrows off of her.

I think she hears me and turns around, trying to get an arrow ready to shoot at me.

"What are you still doing here?" I ask frantically. "Are you mad?"

I run over to her and poke her with the shaft of the spear I found, trying to make her get up. She doesn't seem in her right mind. Was she stung?

"Get up! Get up!" I yell at her. I know Cato must be closing in on us, and I need to get her out of here. She stands up, but doesn't run. I push her away from me, hearing Cato's footsteps now. I need to stay here and distract him so she can get away.

"Run!" I scream at her, pushing her again. "Run!"

She takes off running just as Cato reaches us. I turn around and throw the spear at him but he deflects it with his sword.

"What did I tell you?" he screams and slashes at me. I jump back but trip over Glimmer's body. "What did I say? If you EVER tried to help her, I would KILL you!" he booms. He looks hysterical with anger. He slashes at me again, cutting my thigh open. I feel the blood pouring out, and I know it's bad.

Cato laughs. "Have fun dying. I hope it's slow and painful," he sneers and then runs off back towards the lake.

I try to get up and run towards where Katniss went, but I fall back down. My leg is pouring out blood in torrents, and I know that this wound isn't easily fixable. My vision starts to get blurry and I think I'm about to pass out when I hear a buzzing sound. Oh no, more tracker jackers. I look around and blindly swat around me, but stop after noticing I don't see anything, but I still hear the buzzing.

I feel something on my leg and look down. There are hundreds of tracker jackers pouring out of the wound on my leg, and as they fly away, they get bigger and bigger, as big as a building, and then explode into sprinkles. Hallucinations from the tracker jacker's venom...

I limp around, trying to find somewhere to hide before the Careers find me again, but I can't see around the giant cake sitting in my path. I try to rub my eyes and keep going, try to ignore the hallucinations. I notice I'm walking on rock now instead of dirt, and I lean up against a rock to keep from passing out. I stand back up and notice I left blood on the rock. Can't leave this here... They'll find me... I try to wipe the blood off with my hand but then the blood starts to spread all over the rock, then to the surrounding rocks. I'm hallucinating again... Keep moving... I push on, trying to get as far as I can before passing out.

I fall to my knees, so dizzy. The last thing I see is my tree, the leaves falling off and whirling around me. I close my eyes and fall to the ground, feeling the cool rock against my face. Then, everything goes black.

I have horrifying nightmares about Katniss dying. I watch her die hundreds of times, from falling out of a tree to being tortured by the Careers. I want to wake up, but after every nightmare, a new one begins. I watch Katniss die over and over again.

Finally, after what feels like a lifetime, I wake up. I slowly sit up, and bite my lip to keep from groaning. My whole body is in pain. The burn, the stings, the slash on my leg. My stomach hurts from hunger, which means I must've been out for a while. I look around, trying to see if I know where I am. All I can see are rocks, which doesn't look even remotely familiar to me. I hear water rushing, which gives me some relief. I try to stand up, but I feel the blood rushing from my face and I slump back down, so dizzy I think I might faint again. I decide to crawl to the water, and slowly but surely I make my way to the stream. I crawl into it and lay in the water, trying to wash away all of the blood and pain, but it's no use. The pain is getting worse by the minute and blood is caked all over me from my thigh.

I crawl back out and lay there for a while, trying to decide on what I should do. I hope that a sponsor will send me something to help, whether it be medicine or food, but nothing comes. I lie down, defeated, and close my eyes.

I wake up to the anthem playing, showing no deaths today. How long have I been out? The last I remember, Glimmer and Lenny had died, so it's been at least a day since the tracker jacker attack, maybe more. I watch the stars and the moon, wondering how Katniss is doing. I have no energy left to even move from my spot, so I stay where I am, fighting to stay awake. My heart is racing and my tongue is like sandpaper but I know I won't be able to drink the stream water without purifying it, and my iodine bottle is with the rest of my supplies back where the tracker jacker nest was dropped.

I'm dehydrated and losing a lot of blood. I'm also desperately hungry. I've never felt hunger like this before. I know I don't have very long to live, but I hope that what I did for Katniss was enough to help her win. I drift off to sleep again, wondering if she's still alive.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

"Peeta!" Katniss calls from the kitchen. I smell fresh bread, and it makes me smile. She finally got the hang of making bakery-style bread, which is so much nicer than the bread she was always used to when she lived with her mother and sister in the Seam.

I walk into the kitchen to see her busy at the counter, slicing the fresh bread. I walk up behind her, wrapping my arms around her, and she laughs.

"Peeta, stop. I have a knife in my hands and you're distracting me!" Katniss says, putting the knife down. "See, now I have to kiss you and the bread isn't going to get sliced."

She turns around and smiles a brilliantly happy smile at me, her beautiful grey eyes glistening. I pull her to me, pressing my lips against yours. "Say it," I say, grinning at her.

"Peeta," Katniss laughs, rolling her eyes.

"Come on, say it!" I beg, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Peeta Mellark, you are the best husband in the world!" she exclaims.

Husband. Katniss calling me her husband will always be music to my ears.

"Come on, let's go eat the bread in the meadow," I say, and pack up the bread into a basket. She grabs some goat cheese to go with the bread, and we walk together hand in hand from our house in town towards the meadow.

"I love the sunlight," Katniss says, laying down on the grass, basking in the warm light. It feels so warm, too warm, but I ignore it because she's enjoying it so much. We spread the goat cheese on the bread, but I realize I'm not hungry so I give my piece to Katniss. We sit in silence, enjoying the sound of the birds singing. It reminds me of when I first saw Katniss, when she sang for the class when we were 5. Ever since that day, we've been inseparable. As soon as class ended, I walked up to her and asked her to be my girlfriend. She laughed, but shrugged and said "Sure!" and we've been together ever since.

Thankfully, my parents love her, so they give her family all of the free bread they can eat. Ever since her dad died in a mine accident, she's always been so sad. She cheered herself up by helping to take care of all of the families in the Seam who also lost a family member in the accident, going into the woods and hunting for animals to help feed everyone. Once we both turned 18, we knew we were going to be together forever, so we got married and moved into a vacant house in town next to the bakery.

Katniss lets her mom and sister use it as an apothecary shop during the day, and she and I sleep upstairs. We are happy every day of the year except for when the Capitol reaps a boy and a girl to go into the Hunger Games. Thankfully, Katniss and I never got reaped, but her friend Gale had to go in a few years ago, and he was killed. She hasn't quite been the same since, but I am here every day to help pick up the pieces of her broken heart when she remembers her father and Gale.

I look over to Katniss who is sitting in the grass, leaning back, and letting her skin soak in the sunlight. It's so hot today, I feel like I'm burning up. I want to go inside, but she looks so happy. I just block out the heat and watch my beautiful wife, who is practically glowing in the sunlight.

"Man, it sure is hot out today," I say, fanning my face. I really can't take this heat anymore.

"Do you want to go inside?" Katniss asks, looking at me.

"Yeah, if you don't mind. I don't want to die of a heat stroke!" I laugh.

We pack up and head back to our house, but it's not any cooler inside.

"I think I'm going to take a cool shower," I say, kissing Katniss on the cheek.

"Are you okay?" she asks, worried.

"Yeah, I'm just really hot for some reason," I say, shaking my head.

I make my way upstairs to the shower and set it to cool, and get in. I expect to feel better instantly, but instead the water hitting me is the same temperature I've been feeling all day long. It's hot, way too hot, and even though I keep trying to get it to cold water, it stays hot.

I get out, feeling faint because I can't seem to cool down. I look in the mirror at myself and I see something forming on my chest. What is that? I touch it, and I wince in pain. I feel something on my thigh and I look down. There is a deep gash in my leg and it is pouring out blood.

"Katniss!" I yell, frantically trying to stop the flow of blood, but no matter how many towels I press against it, the blood keeps coming. I'm getting overwhelmed by how hot I am, by the pain on my chest, and the amount of blood I'm losing. Am I going crazy?

"Katniss!" I yell again desperately.

Everything starts to go black, and before I can catch myself, I pass out in a heap on the bathroom floor, hearing a very loud explosion in the background.

My eyes flutter open, and all I can see are rocks. I sigh, wishing I could go back to the dream I was having. I try to sit up, but my body is so stiff and sore that I can't move. Instead, I lay still watching the trees swaying in the light breeze. I realize how hot I am when the breeze hits my face. It must be at least 100 degrees out here.

I hear another explosion, and I try to focus on the sound. What is that? I think for a few minutes, then realize someone must have tried to get the Careers' supplies. I listen for a cannon, but I don't hear one. Maybe it went off during the explosion and I didn't hear it.

I try to stay awake. I try to get up and move to the stream. Drinking dirty water is better than not drinking anything at all. I slowly make myself sit up, but when I try to stand, I immediately get extremely light-headed and fall back to the ground.

It has to be around noon now. I have no idea how long I was out from the tracker jacker stings, but judging by how stiff, hungry and dehydrated I felt, it was probably 2 or 3 days. I sit there, wondering how I'm going to make myself get better so I can try to find Katniss to see if she's still alive, but every time I try to stand, I get so dizzy. I need a first aid kit so I can bandage my leg, but all of my supplies are back at the tree Katniss was trapped in.

I decide to check my leg to see how bad it is, and immediately I wish I hadn't. It's very deep, down to the bone. It's still bleeding and my leg is starting to swell. I lay back down, trying not to pass out again. I watch the clouds in the sky, imagining that they are fresh loaves of bread. I continue to lay there and watch the sun move across the sky, and eventually it is replaced with the moon. I decide I'd better sleep. Maybe I'll have a little more energy so that I can get some food and water tomorrow.

I wake up to the sun beaming relentless heat onto my body. I've never felt so much heat before except from the stoves in the bakery, but then a thought hits me. Maybe it isn't even that hot out here. Maybe I have a fever. My leg was starting to swell yesterday, so it could be infected. If I have a fever, food and water are even more important for me to get today.

I slowly make myself sit up, and as soon as the initial dizziness passes, I start to stand up. I'm finally able to stand up without passing out, but I'm still very dizzy. I make my way to the stream, moving very slowly so I don't pass out again. When I start to walk, I feel something in my pocket and then I remember that I put my iodine bottle in my pocket before we went into the woods the day of the fire attack.

I limp over towards the line of trees and grab the biggest leaf I can find. I fill it with water and put some drops of iodine into it to purify it. I wait as long as I can, and then I slowly drink all of the water in the leaf. The water makes me nauseous, probably because my stomach has been empty for days. I fill the leaf up again, purify it, and drink it. After three rounds of water, I decide that should be enough for a while, and I slowly make my way into the woods to look for food.

I look around for any kind of berry, and while I'm looking, I hear a cannon. I freeze, hoping that Katniss didn't just die. I force the thought out of my mind, trying to hold on to the hope that she's okay. I keep walking around in the woods looking for food. I feel something on my leg and look down to see that my leg has started to bleed profusely again, probably from over-exerting myself.

I put pressure on it with my hand and walk as fast as I can back to the rocks. I lower myself on the ground just as another cannon sounds. I wonder what's going on, since that means that two people died pretty close together, but I get very light-headed and then everything goes black.

I wake up to hearing Claudius Templesmith announcing something. It's hard to focus on what he's saying, but I put all of my energy into it. He announces there has been a rule change. He says that there may be two winners instead of one, if the tributes are from the same district.

I sit up, which I immediately regret because a sharp stab of pain shoots down my leg. I decide it's better not to look at the cut on my leg again because there's nothing I can do to help it. "Katniss..." I mutter, before feeling overwhelmingly dizzy and going unconscious again.

When I wake up, it's mid-morning. I'm expecting to feel the pain of hunger, but instead, I feel numb. I feel so weak, and I know I'm not going to be alive for much longer. I crawl over to the nearest tree and grab as many leaves as I can and then crawl back to the bank and set those down. Then I grab as many plants as I can and set them with the leaves. I begin to weave myself into the bank, using nearby mud and the plants and leaves I gathered. Slowly, my legs disappear. Then, my torso. I do each arm and lastly, I do my face. I lay down, hoping that this camouflage is good enough to keep me safe so that I can die peacefully, and then I close my eyes.


	14. Chapter 14

Part III

"The Victor"

Chapter Fourteen

I wake up to the sound of footsteps. I try to lie still, and it's not hard to do with such a lack of energy. I don't even open my eyes. Even if it is Cato or one of the other Careers, I can't put up a fight. I just hope if they find me, they kill me quickly.

Then a familiar voice calls my name.

"Peeta! Peeta!" the voice says quietly.

I open my eyes and see Katniss. I've never been so happy to see her. I can tell she's been through a lot by her wounds, but I'm so glad she made it through whatever happened to her. She steps out of the stream and continues to search.

"You here to finish me off, sweetheart?" I ask her.

She looks around, trying to see where I am. She walks forward, right toward where I'm laying, but she can't see me because I'm still camouflaged into the bank.

"Peeta? Where are you? Peeta?" she whispers, looking around for me.

"Well, don't step on me," I say, then close my eyes because the sun is so bright, too bright.

She jumps backward and looks down. I open my eyes again and she gasps, which makes me laugh. Laughing is painful, but it's nice to laugh after all this time.

"Close your eyes again," she says, and I do as I'm told. "I guess all those hours decorating cakes paid off," she says, clearly impressed by my skills.

I smile weakly. "Yes, frosting. The final defense of the dying."

"You're not going to die," she says, determined.

"Says who?" I say, feeling weaker than ever, letting my eyes stay closed. I just want to sleep...

"Says me. We're on the same team now, you know," she says matter-of-factly.

"So, I heard," I say, forcing my eyes to open again. "Nice of you to find what's left of me."

She gives me a drink from her water bottle, and I gratefully accept. Knowing she is alive and knowing we can both win gives me a little extra incentive to survive. The sip of water nearly comes right back up, but I force myself to keep it down. My stomach has been empty for days; it's a strange feeling to drink water.

"Did Cato cut you?" she asks me.

"Left leg. Up high," I mutter.

"Let's get you to the stream, wash you off so I can see what kind of wounds you've got," she says.

"Lean down a minute first. Need to tell you something," I almost whisper. I can barely gather up the strength to talk. She leans down and puts her ear near my mouth. "Remember, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it," I whisper, and I can't help but smile at the thought of her kissing me.

She jerks back but laughs, which brings another smile to my face. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," she says.

She tries to help me up to walk to the stream, but I can't move any part of my body without sharp, unbearable pain shooting everywhere. She has to use all of her strength to pull me out of the dried mud and leaves I've encased myself in, and an overwhelming sense of agonizing pain takes over my body. I grit my teeth to keep from yelling out loud and I feel tears falling down my face.

"Look, Peeta," Katniss says, aware of how much pain I'm in. "I'm going to roll you into the stream. It's very shallow here, okay?"

"Excellent," I say. All I can think about is the pain I'm in, and how much I wish it would stop.

She kneels down next to me and gets ready to roll me into the water. "On three," she says. "One, two, three!" and then rolls me one time and stops because I am groaning in pain.

"Okay, change of plans. I'm not going to put you all the way in," she says.

"No more rolling?" I ask. Please, no more...

"That's all done. Let's get you cleaned up. Keep an eye on the woods for me, okay?" she says. I nod and train my eyes on the woods. It's taking everything I have not to close my eyes, but I need to make sure nobody comes out of the woods to attack us. She pours water over me to get the caked mud off of my clothes and takes off my jacket and shirt. She cuts my undershirt off of me, which is painful because my undershirt is stuck to my burn and tracker jacker stings.

She props me up against a boulder and washes the rest of the dirt out of my hair and off of my skin. She digs the stingers out of my tracker jacker stings, and then she puts some leaves in her mouth, chews them up, and puts the wads on the 4 stings I have on my upper body. Immediately, the pain in my stings is gone, almost like the leaves are pulling the pain right out.

Katniss goes back to the stream, washes my clothes, and lays them over rocks to dry in the sun. She comes back and pulls out a container and takes a scoop of what's in it and spreads it on the burn on my chest. The burning pain immediately stops and a cooling sensation takes over. Kind of like the stuff Lenny used, but much stronger.

She pulls a first aid kit out of her backback and rummages through the contents. She pulls out some pills and hands them to me. "Take them," she says, and I do. "You must be hungry."

"Not really. It's funny, I haven't been hungry for days," I say. She pulls out some cooked meat and offers me some, but I turn away. Even looking at the food is making me nauseous.

"Peeta, we need to get some food in you," Katniss says.

"It'll just come right back up," I say.

She pulls out different types of food from her pack, and I finally accept some dried apples so she will stop worrying so much.

"Thanks. I'm much better, really. Can I sleep now, Katniss?" I ask. I can barely keep my eyes open. I'm exhausted, and so weak.

"Soon. I need to look at your leg first," she says.

She takes off my boots and socks and slowly takes my pants off to get a better look at the gash on my leg. I look away, not wanting to see how bad it really is. I know it must be bad, though, because Katniss looks like she's about to either throw up or pass out.

"Pretty awful, huh?" I ask.

"So-so," she shrugs. "You should see some of the people they bring my mother from the mines. First thing is to clean it well."

She places a square of plastic under my leg and begins to wash the wound with water. I decide I might as well look at it, and glance down. It's definitely infected, with blood and pus oozing out of it and my thigh is nearly twice the size as my other one.

She treats one tracker jacker sting on my right lower leg and a few small burns I didn't even realize I had, but must've happened after I passed out from the chest burn.

She sits next to me, staring at my thigh, probably wondering what can be done for a cut this bad. "Why don't we give it some air and then..." she trails off, looking desperate.

"And then you'll patch it up?" I say, trying to help her.

"That's right. In the meantime, you eat these," she says and hands me some dried pears. She goes back to the stream to finish washing my clothes. I sit there with the pears in my hand, unable to eat them. I really couldn't eat it even if I wanted to. I'm barely holding onto what she's already made me eat and drink.

She comes back and opens the first aid kit again, looking at everything she has to help me.

"We're going to have to experiment some," she says. She takes some more of the leaves she used to help my stings and sticks them in her mouth, chewing them into a goopy wad and sets it on my thigh. In a few minutes, pus comes pouring out of the cut. I look up at Katniss, who seems to be biting the inside of her mouth.

"Katniss?" I say. She looks up to me, looking like she's going to be sick. I try to take her mind off of what's going on with my leg by mouthing "How about that kiss?"

She bursts out laughing, and I smile at her.

"Something wrong?" I ask her, still smiling.

"I... I'm no good at this. I'm not my mother. I've no idea what I'm doing and I hate pus. Euh!" she says, groaning. She rinses off the first round of the leaves and applies a second. "Euuuh!"

"How do you hunt?" I ask.

"Trust me. Killing things is much easier than this. Although for all I know, I am killing you."

"Can you speed it up a little?" I ask.

"No. Shut up and eat your pears," she says.

She rinses off the second application of leaves and puts on a third, and after a few minutes rinses that layer off too. We both look at the wound, and it does look a little less swollen, but that makes it look even deeper than it looked before.

"What next, Dr. Everdeen?" I ask her.

"Maybe I'll put some of the burn ointment on it. I think it helps with infection anyway. And wrap it up?" she says uncertainly. She applies the ointment and wraps my thigh in white gauze, being careful not to put it on too tightly.

She pulls a small bag out of her backpack and tosses it to me. "Here, cover yourself with this and I'll wash your shorts."

"Oh, I don't care if you see me," I say. Then she blushes and looks down at the ground.

"You're just like the rest of my family," she says nervously. "I care, all right?" She turns away and I shake my head, smiling. I take my shorts off and toss them towards her into the stream.

"You know, you're kind of squeamish for such a lethal person. I wish I'd let you give Haymitch a shower after all," I say, smiling.

"What's he sent you so far?" she asks.

"Not a thing," I say. Then, I realize where all of the sponsors' gifts have gone. "Why, did you get something?"

"Burn medicine. Oh, and some bread," she says.

Although I'm glad he's been helping her, I wish he would've at least sent me something to help me these past few days.

"I always knew you were his favorite," I say.

"Please, he can't stand being in the same room with me."

"Because you're just alike," I say, rolling my eyes.

She's still washing and drying my clothes, and I don't have the energy to keep a conversation going any longer, so I let my eyes close and I doze off, relieved that Katniss is here with me.

I'm woken by Katniss shaking my shoulder. "Peeta, we've got to go now."

"Go? Go where?" I ask sleepily.

"Away from here. Downstream maybe. Somewhere we can hide you until you're stronger," she says. She helps me put my clothes back on, except for my socks and shoes. Where are my shoes? I need them... She helps me stand, and I immediately get so dizzy that I can't see and I feel like I'm about to pass out.

"Come on. You can do this," encourages Katniss.

I try my best, but after a few minutes of walking, I feel like I can't fight the urge to pass out anymore. Katniss lowers me to the ground and pushes my head between my knees. I know I'm not doing well because I keep forgetting where I am and what I'm doing. I sit quietly, focusing on staying awake, while Katniss pats my back. I know she must be worried about our safety since we're out in the open. I want to tell her to go on without me but I don't have the strength to speak.

After a few minutes of sitting, she helps me up and we begin to walk downstream again. She leads me to a cave and then sits me down inside. She runs outside and comes back a few moments later with pine needles in her arms, and she lays them on the floor of the cave. She gets a sleeping bag out of her pack and lays it down. Then she comes over to me, helps me up, and leads me over to the sleeping bag.

I climb into it, and she tucks me in tightly. She gives me a couple more pills to take and I take them and drink some water. She offers me some fruit again, but I can't bear to even look at it, much less eat it. I study her face, and I know she's thinking the same thing that I'm thinking. I'm not okay, and I'm going to die soon.

Katniss gets up and tries to cover the cave entrance with vines, but quickly tears it down in frustration.

"Katniss," I manage to say.

She walks over to me, sits down, and brushes the hair from my face. "Thanks for finding me," I say.

"You would have found me if you could," she says.

"Yes. Look, if I don't make it back-" I start to say, but she interrupts.

"Don't talk like that," she says sternly. "I didn't drain all that pus for nothing."

"I know. But just in case I don't-" I try again.

"No, Peeta, I don't even want to discuss it," she says, placing a finger on my lips to try to make me stop talking about what we both know is going to happen to me.

"But I-" I say, trying to get the point across that I want her to know that I love her, and I want her to win, and that I did everything I could this entire time to keep her alive.

She interrupts me again, but not by talking. She leans down and presses her lips to mine. I don't know why. I kiss her back, confused but never wanting this moment to end. It's as amazing as I thought it would be. It's my first kiss ever, and I'm so glad I got to kiss her just in case I die in this arena.

She pulls away too soon and pulls the sleeping bag up under my chin. "You're not going to die. I forbid it. All right?"

"All right," I whisper, so tired.

She walks outside, and I fight to stay awake because I feel like if I fall asleep, I might never wake up.

"Peeta!" Katniss calls a few minutes later. I look over to see her walking back into the cave with something in her hands. "Peeta, look what Haymitch has sent you."

This is the first sponsor gift I've received since we've been in the arena. Katniss was sent all of the gifts, which is essentially what Haymitch and I agreed on. She sits down next to me and shows me a pot of broth. My stomach turns and I snarl my nose and turn away, the smell making me dizzy with nausea. She takes the spoon it came with and puts some broth into it.

"Peeta, please. Eat. You need to eat," Katniss begs.

I sigh and turn my head towards her. She puts the spoon in my mouth and I sip the broth out of it, trying to focus on keeping it down. It tastes good, but the second it gets to my stomach, I get overwhelmingly nauseous. She puts another spoonful to my mouth, but I shake my head and clamp my mouth shut.

"Peeta," Katniss pleads. She sets the spoon and bowl down and kisses me again.

Slowly and painfully, she makes me eat the whole pot of broth. Every bite was torturous, making me not want to eat the rest, but Katniss is persistent, and did what she could to make me eat it, which included a lot of kissing, so eating the broth was kind of worth it.

"Good. Now sleep, Peeta," Katniss says, brushing my hair out of my face. I gratefully close my eyes, unable to fight the urge to sleep anymore, anyways.

I dream that Katniss is crowned the winner of the Games. I try to congratulate her, but she can't hear me. She can't see me. I'm yelling for her, reaching for her, but she doesn't know I'm there. Then we're back in our district, and Katniss is crying. She's standing next to a wooden box. There is a person in the box. I look around. We're at a funeral. Whose funeral? Did her mother die? No. I see who's in the box. It's me. I'm in the coffin. I'm dead. I died. I yell for her to see me, I'm right behind her. She can't hear me.

I wake up, heart pounding, and I'm drenched in sweat. I don't know if that's from the fever or my nightmare. I look around, but I don't see Katniss. Where is she? I suddenly get worried. What if they found her? I try to sit up, but I'm so weak. I put all of my energy into trying to sit up. Just then, Katniss walks into the cave. I breathe a sigh of relief, so happy to see her face.

"I woke up and you were gone. I was worried about you," I say.

She walks over to me and laughs, helping me lay back down. "You were worried about me? Have you taken a look at yourself lately?" she says, shaking her head.

"I thought Cato and Clove might have found you. They like to hunt at night," I say.

"Clove? Which one is that?" she asks.

"The girl from District Two. She's still alive, right?" I ask. I have no idea how long I've been out, and I can't really remember who's left.

"Yes, there's just them and us and Thresh and Foxface," she says. I wonder what happened to Marvel and the boy from 3? "That's what I nicknamed the girl from Five. How do you feel?"

"Better than yesterday. This is an enormous improvement over the mud," I say. "Clean clothes and medicine and a sleeping bag... and you."

She looks confused for a second, which makes me wonder what she's thinking. I can tell she's not used to hearing things like that from someone, though. She reaches out her hand to me and I take it in mine, kissing it gently. I'm so glad she finally trusts me. I'm glad we get this time together, even if it may be short-lived.

"No more kisses for you until you've eaten," she says and helps me sit up.

I want to kiss her for the rest of my life, and it is the best feeling in the world knowing she wants to kiss me, too. She feeds me some mushy stuff that tastes like berries, which I obediently eat without a complaint. She tries to feed me some more of the meat she tried to feed me when she first found me, but I almost lose the berries she just fed me because of the smell of the meat, and even though I don't want to be stubborn, I refuse to eat it. I want to make her happy, but I know I'll throw up if I eat that.

I look at her, trying to see if she's going to be upset. I notice the dark circles under her eyes. "You didn't sleep," I say, frowning.

"I'm all right," she says unconvincingly.

"Sleep now. I'll keep watch. I'll wake you if anything happens," I say. She frowns a little, not convinced. "Katniss, you can't stay up forever."

She thinks for a moment, then nods. "All right. But just for a few hours. Then you wake me," she says.

She spreads the sleeping bag down and lays on top of it, with her loaded bow in her hand. I vaguely remember seeing her take that from Glimmer's body. I brush the hair off of her face, and continue to stroke her hair until she falls asleep.

I watch her sleep, and she looks so peaceful. Since she's found me, she has had a distant look on her face. She's seemed exhausted, physically and emotionally. But in sleep, she has no frown on her face. I smile and lay my head back, so thankful that she's here with me.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

I stare outside, watching the sun move across the sky. I look over at Katniss. I know she told me to wake her, but I can't bear to bring her out of this peacefulness she is in. She deserves a break from all of this depravity. I try to remember to sip water, though I can't bear to eat. I can tell my fever is back, and I feel bad that Katniss is working so hard to keep me alive but I keep getting worse.

I feel so weak and tired, but I can't fall asleep. I focus on the light breeze outside and try to picture myself back at my house in District 12, sitting under my tree, sketching pictures of the clouds in the sky.

Katniss stirs, and I look over at her. She sits up and frowns at me. "Peeta, you were supposed to wake me after a couple of hours," she says.

"For what? Nothing's going on here," I say, shrugging. "Besides, I like watching you sleep. You don't scowl. Improves your looks a lot."

She frowns at me again, and I smile at her. She reaches out and feels my cheek, and I know she is checking my temperature.

"Have you been drinking water?" she asks, concerned.

"Yes," I say, though I think I only took a few sips.

She gets up and goes to her pack, pulling out the first aid kit. She gives me more fever pills and I take them. She makes me drink two quarts of water, which is hard to keep down, but I'm determined to do it to make her happy. She looks over my wounds, and my stings and burns look a lot better. She puts more chewed up leaves on my stings and more ointment on my burns.

She takes a deep breath, which I don't think I was supposed to notice, and then she unwraps my leg. I look at it and know that I'm in serious trouble. Even though the pus is gone, it's very swollen and I can see red streaks coming from the cut, and that is a sign of blood poisoning. I look at Katniss to see how she's reacting to this, and I can tell she thinks I'm in serious trouble too.

She clears her throat and tries to put on a poker face. "Well, there's more swelling, but the pus is gone," she says shakily.

"I know what blood poisoning is, Katniss. Even if my mother isn't a healer," I say.

"You're just going to have to outlast the others, Peeta. They'll cure it back at the Capitol when we win," she says, sadness in her voice. She knows I'm nearing the end, and I know it too. But I can't bear to see her so sad, so I try to keep it positive.

"Yes, that's a good plan," I say.

"You have to eat," she says, looking up at me. "Keep your strength up. I'm going to make you soup."

"Don't light a fire. It's not worth it," I say. That will definitely attract Cato and Clove to us. That's how we found that girl in the woods the first night we were here.

"We'll see," she says, and gets up and leaves the cave.

I sit there and try not to think about how horrible I feel. My fever is going nowhere but up, I'm still dehydrated even though I just drank a ton of water, my leg feels like it could explode at any moment, and I have absolutely no strength left in me. I know I don't have long, but I can't let that show. I have to stay positive for her.

Katniss comes back a while later, which makes me smile a bit. I know I'm going to die peacefully, knowing that she has feelings for me. I've wanted that to happen for eleven years, and even though it took this long, it was worth dying for.

She walks over to me and puts cool cloths on my forehead to try to lower my temperature, but I can feel them heating up almost immediately. She looks defeated. She doesn't know what else she can do for me.

"Do you want anything?" she asks.

"No. Thank you," I say. Then I realize that she'll probably go back out and hunt or something, and I don't want her to leave. "Wait, yes. Tell me a story."

She looks confused. "A story? What about?"

Something happy. Tell me about the happiest day you can remember," I say. She needs to think of something happy. She's going to be alone soon, so I need her to try to remember happy things to stay positive so she can win and go home.

She sighs and thinks for a few moments. "Did I ever tell you about how I got Prim's goat?"

I shake my head and watch her as she begins her story. I figure it has something to do with her going in the woods, but since that is strictly forbidden in the district and she could get in serious trouble for it, she won't say anything about that. She tells me a lovely story about selling one of her mother's old lockets and using the money to buy an almost-dead goat from the Goat Man. I've talked to him a few times, because my father sends me there sometimes to buy goat milk.

Katniss looks happy talking about her life back home. She lights up talking about Gale and Prim.

She tells me that after buying the goat and buying a pink ribbon to tie around her neck, she and Gale took the goat home to Prim and her mother, who healed the goat's wounds, which came from some kind of animal attack.

"They sound like you," I say.

"Oh, no, Peeta. They work magic. That thing couldn't have died if it tried," she says. Then she looks at me, wide-eyed.

"Don't worry. I'm not trying," I laugh. "Finish the story."

"Well, that's it. Only I remember that night, Prim insisted on sleeping with Lady on a blanket next to the fire. And just before they drifted off, the goat licked her cheek, like it was giving her a good night kiss or something. It was already mad about her," she says.

"Was it still wearing the pink ribbon?" I ask.

"I think so. Why?" she asks.

"I'm just trying to get a picture. I can see why that day made you happy," I say, smiling.

"Well, I knew that goat would be a little gold mine," she says. There she goes again, trying to hide her real emotions.

"Yes, of course I was referring to that, not the lasting joy you gave the sister you love so much you took her place in the reaping," I say.

"The goat has paid for itself. Several times over," she says in a know-it-all tone.

"Well, it wouldn't dare do anything else after you saved its life. I intend to do the same thing," I say.

"Really? What did you cost me again?" she asks.

"A lot of trouble. Don't worry. You'll get it all back," I say, fighting to stay awake.

"You're not making sense," she says, concerned. She feels my forehead to see if I still have a fever, which I know I do. My body feels like it's on fire from the heat of it. "You're a little cooler though," she lies.

Just then, the trumpets sound, signaling an announcement. Probably going to announce the feast they have every year to try to get the tributes to come together and fight for the food. I can't think about food, ugh... I close my eyes, not caring about what Claudius Templesmith has to say.

He announces the feast, and I start to fall asleep. "Now hold on," he says, and I open my eyes. "Some of you may already be declining my invitation. But this is no ordinary feast. Each of you needs something desperately."

I need medicine for my leg. I look over at Katniss, who is listening to Claudius intently. Oh no. She can't go. She'll get killed.

"Each of you will find that something in a backpack, marked with your district number, at the Cornucopia at dawn. Think hard about refusing to show up. For some of you, this will be your last chance," he says, then the air goes silent.

I can see that Katniss is already deciding her strategy about going, and I grab her shoulder, which makes her jump. "No. You're not risking your life for me."

"Who said I was?" she says unconvincingly.

"So, you're not going?" I ask.

"Of course, I'm not going. Give me some credit. Do you think I'm running straight into some free-for-all against Cato and Clove and Thresh? Don't be stupid," she says, rolling her eyes. "I'll let them fight it out, we'll see who's in the sky tomorrow night and work out a plan from there."

"You're such a bad liar, Katniss. I don't know how you've survived this long," I sigh. "I knew that goat would be a little gold mine. You're a little cooler though. Of course, I'm not going," I mock her and shake my head. "Never gamble at cards. You'll lose your last coin."

She frowns angrily. "All right, I am going, and you can't stop me!"

"I can follow you. At least partway. I may not make it to the Cornucopia, but if I'm yelling your name, I bet someone can find me. And then I'll be dead for sure," I say.

"You won't get a hundred yards from here on that leg," she says, frowning.

"Then I'll drag myself. You go and I'm going, too," I say sternly.

"What am I supposed to do? Sit here and watch you die?" she says sadly.

"I won't die. I promise. If you promise not to go," I say. It's too dangerous for her. If it will keep her here, out of danger, I will fight until my last breath to stay alive for her, even though I'm feeling worse by the minute.

"Then you have to do what I say. Drink your water, wake me when I tell you, and eat every bite of the soup no matter how disgusting it is!" she shouts.

"Agreed. Is it ready?" I ask.

"Wait here," she says and leaves the cave.

"It's not like I can go anywhere," I mumble after she's left the cave.

She comes back a few minutes later with the soup, and I eat every bit of it, just like she wants. I even go on and on about how delicious it is, which only makes her look at me with worry, which confuses me.

"I'm gonna go wash up. I'll be right back," Katniss says, and leaves the cave. I lean my head back against the wall of the cave and close my eyes, feeling miserable but determined to fight to stay alive. I had basically accepted that I was going to die, but seeing how hard Katniss is fighting for me to stay alive gives me a reason to live. I'm not going to let her be alone ever again. I'm not going to let all of her hard work go to waste when she could've easily abandoned me to save herself.

She comes back with a bowl of mashed up berries. "I've brought you a treat. I found a new patch of berries a little farther downstream," she says, giving me a bite. I take it without hesitation, and I notice something weird. "They're very sweet."

"Yes, they're sugar berries. My mother makes jam from them. Haven't you ever had them before?" she says, giving me another bite.

"No," I say. "But they taste familiar. Sugar berries?" I've never heard of sugar berries.

"Well, you can't get them in the market much, they only grow wild," she explains.

"They're sweet as syrup," I say while taking the last bite, trying to think of where I've tasted these before. Wait... "Syrup."

Sleep syrup! As soon as I realize what she's doing, I try to spit them out, but she clamps her hand over my nose and mouth until I'm forced to swallow the last bite. She moves away, waiting for me to pass out. I try to throw them up, but I can't focus. I'm falling asleep, even though I'm trying my hardest not to. The last image I see is Katniss staring at me, and all I can think is that this could be the last time I ever see her alive.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Everything is so fuzzy. I'm so tired. Where am I? I sit up suddenly, remembering what happened. The sun is setting, so it must be evening. I feel something on my hand and look at it. It's covered in blood. I see Katniss slumped over next to me lying in a huge puddle of blood. I jump up and grab her, pulling her upright. She's unconscious, but still breathing, with a large gash across her forehead.

"Katniss!" I yell, shaking her, trying to wake her, but she's unresponsive.

I grab the first aid kit, clean the wound and put a white bandage over it. I feel a sore spot on my arm and look at it. There is a pinprick of dried blood in the middle of a bruise. Confused, I look around and find a hypodermic needle laying on the cave floor next to the sleeping bag. The medicine from the feast. She must have given it to me before passing out. I realize how much better I actually feel. I don't feel feverish, and my leg, though still sore, can bear some weight. I go out to the stream and wet some cloths and go back inside to clean up the pool of blood.

I check to see if she has any more wounds, but she's fine besides the gash on her forehead. Her boots and socks are completely soaked, so I take them off to let them dry out.

I hear the anthem signaling the nightly death toll, and I go outside to watch, curious to see if anyone was killed at the feast. I'm completely surprised to see Clove's face appear in the sky. I figured I would see Foxface, because even though she seems smart, she's definitely not as physically strong as the others. The music ends and the sky goes dark, so I go back inside the cave.

I move Katniss into the sleeping bag and climb in next to her. I decide to sleep off the rest of the sleep syrup so I can have more energy to take care of her when she wakes up. I doze off, holding Katniss in my arms.

When I wake again, it's morning. The sun is high in the sky, masked by storm clouds. "It's gonna rain. Great," I mutter. I see that Katniss is still unconscious, which worries me, but I try not to focus on the worst case scenario.

I realize how hungry I am, which is a good sign that I'm on my way to recovery. I check my leg and see that the swelling is almost completely gone. I bandage it back up to keep away infection and go to Katniss' pack to get some food. I take out the meat she tried to feed me on a couple of occasions and scarf down three pieces of it. I grab a fourth but decide against it. Since it's about to rain, there's no telling when Katniss will be able to hunt for meat again. I put the rest of the meat back into the pack and drink as much water as I can possibly hold. I need to be as strong as possible when Katniss wakes up so I can help her out when she needs it.

I go over to check on her and she is still passed out. She's bled through her bandage so I replace it with a new one. "You're so beautiful," I whisper to her and push the hair from her face. Just then, it begins to pour down rain. Within a few moments, several places in the cave begin to drip with water, so I look in Katniss' pack for something to put over her to protect her from the rain. I find a sheet of plastic and manuever it over her to shield her face and upper body. Katniss stirs and I sit down next to her.

"Katniss. Katniss, can you hear me?" I say.

Her eyes flutter open in confusion as she focuses on me, then she relaxes. "Peeta."

"Hey. Good to see your eyes again," I say, smiling.

"How long have I been out?" she asks.

"Not sure. I woke up yesterday evening and you were lying next to me in a very scary pool of blood. I think it's stopped finally, but I wouldn't sit up or anything."

She lifts her hand to her forehead and feels her bandaged wound. She looks a little faint, so I grab a water bottle and make her drink. She gulps it down. "You're better," she says.

"Much better. Whatever you shot into my arm did the trick. By this morning, almost all the swelling in my leg was gone," I say.

"Did you eat?" she asks.

"I'm sorry to say I gobbled down three pieces of that groosling before I realized it might have to last a while. Don't worry, I'm back on a strict diet," I say, feeling guilty for eating so much.

"No, it's good. You need to eat. I'll go hunting soon," she says dismissively.

"Not too soon, all right?" I say. "You just let me take care of you for a while."

She stays under the plastic while I feed her some food and make her drink some more water. Her feet are freezing from wearing those soaked boots and socks, so I try to massage some warmth into them, and after a few minutes, I take my jacket off, wrap her feet in it and make her get back into the sleeping bag.

"Your boots and socks are still damp and the weather's not helping much," I say.

The rain outside has turned into a thunderstorm, with bright lightning and loud claps of thunder. "I wonder what brought on this storm? I mean, who's the target?" I ask.

"Cato and Thresh," she says absentmindedly. "Foxface will be in her den somewhere, and Clove... she cut me and then..."

"I know Clove's dead. I saw it in the sky last night. Did you kill her?" I say.

"No. Thresh broke her skull with a rock," she says.

"Lucky he didn't catch you, too," I say.

"He did. But he let me go..." she says, stopping to think for a moment. She takes a deep breath and then tells me about what she's been through in these Games. "I teamed up with Rue, the little girl from District 11. She told me how the Careers had all of their supplies gathered in a big pile surrounded by some kind of booby trap. We decided that we were gonna destroy the supplies, so we built four piles of brush that she would burn one by one at different locations to distract the Careers while I destroyed their supplies. I blew it up with my bow and arrow. I shot two arrows at a bag of apples and the apples fell and activated the mines that were buried around the pile, and the impact blew me backwards and deafened me in my left ear. I went to find Rue and I couldn't find her so I figured she was in a tree somewhere, stuck but safe. But then she screamed for me and I found her but Marvel threw a spear at her so I killed Marvel but the spear hit Rue and it killed her. I laid her to rest with flowers and her district thanked me by sending me bread. So when I went to the feast and Clove tried to kill me, Thresh pulled her off of me and killed her because she was talking about Rue and he let me go because I was so nice to Rue and he didn't want to owe me anything," she rambles. She looks close to tears, and I just want to hug her and take all of the pain away.

"He let you go because he didn't want to owe you anything?" I ask, completely baffled.

"Yes. I don't expect you to understand it. You've always had enough. But if you'd lived in the Seam, I wouldn't have to explain," she says.

"And don't try. Obviously I'm too dim to get it," I say.

"It's like the bread. How I never seem to get over owing you for that," she says, looking down.

"The bread? What? From when we were kids? I think we can let that go. I mean, you just brought me back from the dead," I say.

"But you didn't know me. We had never even spoken. Besides, it's the first gift that's always the hardest to pay back. I wouldn't even have been here to do it if you hadn't helped me then," she says. "Why did you, anyway?"

"Why? You know why," I say, and she shakes her head. "Haymitch said you would take a lot of convincing."

"Haymitch? What's he got to do with it?" she asks.

I shake my head. "Nothing. So, Cato and Thresh, huh? I guess it's too much to hope that they'll simultaneously destroy each other?"

"I think we would like Thresh. I think he'd be our friend back in District Twelve," she says sadly.

"Then let's hope Cato kills him, so we don't have to," I say darkly.

I see tears forming in her eyes. "What is it? Are you in a lot of pain?" I ask her.

"I want to go home, Peeta," she says quietly.

"You will. I promise," I say, and I lean down towards her, hoping she'll kiss me.

"I want to go home now," she almost whispers.

"Tell you what. You go back to sleep and dream of home. And you'll be there for real before you know it. Okay?" I say.

"Okay," she whispers. "Wake me if you need me to keep watch."

"I'm good and rested, thanks to you and Haymitch. Besides, who knows how long this will last?" I say.

Katniss nods silently and closes her eyes. After she's fallen asleep, I get up and stand in the entrance to the cave, watching the rain. It feels so nice to be able to walk without passing out.

After a few moments, the rain picks up again, and water begins to pour into the cave through the cracks. I readjust the plastic covering Katniss so most of the water is deflected off of her, and place the pot that she used for the soup to catch the water from the largest leak. I go back over to the cave entrance and I inhale deeply, catching the scent of the rain, trying to commit it to memory. If I wind up dying, it'll be a nice thing to focus on.

I let Katniss sleep for a few hours, and then I decide I should wake her up. If I wait any longer, she'll be mad that I let her sleep so long again. And I've gotten my full appetite back, but I don't want to eat without her. She sits up and stretches, looking less pale but still too sickly for my liking.

I go over to her pack and get out all of our remaining food, which consists of two pieces of meat, some dried apples, and some roots.

"Should we try and ration it?" I ask.

"No, let's just finish it. The groosling's getting old anyway, and the last thing we need is to get sick off spoiled food," she says.

We divide the food equally and eat, finishing our meager meal in a matter of minutes. My stomach still aches with hunger, but we're out of food now, and it's still pouring down rain.

"Tomorrow's a hunting day," Katniss declares.

"I won't be much help with that. I've never hunted before," I say. Not animals, anyway...

"I'll kill and you cook. And you can always gather," she says.

"I wish there was some sort of bread bush out there," I say.

"The bread they sent me from District Eleven was still warm," she sighs. "Here, chew these."

She hands me some leaves, and I smell them. Mint. I put a few in my mouth and chew, and though it helps slightly, it's not enough to stop the hunger pains. Through the rain, I hear the anthem begin to play, and Katniss and I peek out into the sky. No deaths today.

"Where did Thresh go? I mean, what's on the far side of the circle?" Katniss asks.

"A field. As far as you can see it's full of grasses as high as my shoulders," I say. "I don't know, maybe some of them are grain. There are patches of different colors. But there are no paths."

"I bet some of them are grain. I bet Thresh knows which ones, too," she says. "Did you go in there?"

"No. Nobody really wanted to track Thresh down in that grass. It has a sinister feeling to it. Every time I look at that field, all I can think of are hidden things. Snakes, and rabid animals, and quicksand. There could be anything in there," I say.

Katniss nods, her eyes distant, lost in thought. She's really not good at talking about what she's feeling.

"Maybe there is a bread bush in that field. Maybe that's why Thresh looks better fed now than when we started the Games," she says.

"Either that or he's got very generous sponsors. I wonder what we'd have to do to get Haymitch to send us some bread," I say.

She raises her eyebrows, then frowns. "Well, he probably used up a lot of resources helping me knock you out," she says, smiling a bit.

"Yeah, about that," I say, grabbing her hand. "Don't try something like that again."

"Or what?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Or... or... Just give me a minute," I say, trying to think of something flirtatious to say.

"What's the problem?" she asks, grinning.

"The problem is we're both still alive. Which only reinforces the idea in your mind that you did the right thing," I say, getting more serious.

"I did do the right thing," she says.

"No! Just don't, Katniss!" I almost yell. I squeeze her hand, trying to show her how sincere I am about this. "Don't die for me. You won't be doing me any favors. All right?"

Katniss seems to be taken aback by my intensity, which doesn't surprise me. She's not good with feelings. She sighs. "Maybe I did it for myself, Peeta, did you ever think of that? Maybe you aren't the only one who... who worries about... what it would be like if..." She trails off, looking down.

"If what, Katniss?" I ask quietly.

"That's exactly the kind of topic Haymitch told me to steer clear of," she says, avoiding my gaze.

"Then I'll just have to fill in the blanks myself," I say and lean in towards her.

She looks up and meets my lips with hers, and time stops. It feels different from any of the other times we've kissed. Probably because I was a walking corpse all of the other times. Well, not a walking one.

Her hands move up and she places them on the back of my neck, pulling me closer to her, but after a moment, I pull away. She needs to rest and heal, and if I don't pull away now, I would kiss her forever.

I kiss her on her nose and stand up. "I think your wound is bleeding again. Come on, lie down, it's bedtime anyway," I say.

I help her put her socks on since they're finally dry, and she makes me put on my jacket. I oblige because it is freezing in the cave from all of the rain.

"I'm going to take the first watch. I've been sleeping all day. You need some rest," Katniss says.

I hesitate, knowing that she needs rest, but I know she isn't going to budge. "Okay, but only if you lay in the sleeping bag with me. It's too cold for you not to," I say.

We climb into the sleeping bag and I pull her to me, resting one arm over her and letting her use my other arm as a pillow to keep it elevated to help stop the bleeding. I drift off to sleep, happy that the girl I love is in my arms.

Katniss wakes me and tells me she can't stay awake any longer. I tell her that it's fine and I kiss her cheek, sitting up so I don't fall back to sleep.

"Tomorrow, when it's dry, I'll find us a place so high in the trees we can both sleep in peace," she says, then a few moments later, she's sound asleep.

I sit next to Katniss while she sleeps, trying to keep watch, but I keep finding myself watching her sleep. I gently stroke her hair, wishing that we could be back home. I try not to think about home, because before the rule change that could make Katniss and I both leave here alive, I had every intent on dying. I was going to help her survive until I couldn't anymore. I had already said my peace in my head. I had forced myself to stop thinking about home, because I knew I would never go back there. But now, we can both win. We can both go home. And if we do, maybe we can be together.

How she's been acting lately gives me hope that she will want to be with me after this. I don't know how long she's had feelings for me, but I know she's noticed me back in District 12 more than I thought she did. She remembered that I placed second in that wrestling tournament, and she's been watching me at the market, since she knows I can lift the bags of flour.

This girl has come so far in her life, and I'm not about to let this beat her. She WILL come back alive, whether I'm with her at the end or not. I just hope that she wants me standing next to her at the end of this, with her hand in mine.

Morning comes, and I wake Katniss. It's still pouring down rain, and it seems even worse than yesterday. The thunder is nearly deafening and the rain is relentless.

"Maybe we should still go out, try to get some berries or something," I suggest. I'm starving, and I'm sure she is, too. We can't stay in here without food, or we'll die for sure.

"There's no point. You won't be able to see three feet in front of your face, and you're going to get soaked in the process, which won't help our situation," Katniss says.

We wait around, drinking as much water as we can and eating the rest of the mint leaves Katniss has in her bag. I keep hoping that maybe Haymitch can send us some food, but it seems less and less likely as the day goes on. It's late in the Games, so the sponsors have to pay a lot of money to send gifts to the tributes, but I thought we would have a lot of sponsors, seeing as Katniss was definitely their favorite.

"Peeta," Katniss says after a long day of silence. "You said at the interview you'd had a crush on me forever. When did forever start?"

"Oh, let's see. I guess the first day of school. We were five. You had on a red plaid dress and your hair... it was in two braids instead of one. My father pointed you out when we were waiting to line up," I say.

"Your father? Why?" she asks.

"He said, 'See that little girl? I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner,'" I say.

"What? You're making that up!" she says, surprised.

"No, true story. And I said, 'A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner if she could've had you?' And he said, 'Because when he sings... even the birds stop to listen,'" I say.

"That's true. They do. I mean, they did," she says, still surprised. I guess her mom never told her about my father. Kinda sad.

"So that day, in music assembly, the teacher asked who knew the valley song," I continue. "Your hand shot right up in the air. She stood you up on a stool and had you sing it for us. And I swear, every bird outside the windows fell silent."

The memory of that day makes me smile. Such happier, simpler times.

"Oh, please," Katniss says, laughing.

"No, it happened. And right when your song ended, I knew- just like your mother- I was a goner. Then for the next eleven years, I tried to work up the nerve to talk to you," I say, slightly embarrassed.

"Without success," she says, smiling.

"Without success. So, in a way, my name being drawn in the reaping was a real piece of luck," I say, shrugging.

I watch Katniss' reaction, part of me thinking she's going to run right out of here. She's smiling for a moment, a genuinely, non-forced smile, then it fades and she's lost in her own thoughts again.

"You have a... remarkable memory," Katniss says distantly.

"I remember everything about you," I say, tucking her hair behind her ear. "You're the one who wasn't paying attention."

"I am now," she says quietly.

"Well, I don't have much competition here," I say, smiling sadly.

Katniss looks like she's going to faint or something. She's breathing hard and looking around nervously. She gulps and finally speaks after a few moments. "You don't have much competition anywhere," she says and leans in to kiss me.

Just as our lips meet, we hear a noise outside. We both jump up, Katniss holding her bow loaded with an arrow, and I have a knife. I walk over to the entrance and peek out through the rocks and I see it. A parachute attached to a large basket. I give a loud whoop and run right out into the rain, not caring about getting drenched. I bring the basket back in and hand it to Katniss, who immediately opens it, and a wonderful smell wafts out of it. The basket is filled with all kinds of Capitol food. Lamb stew with rice, rolls, cheese and apples with an added bonus of plates and silverware. We both stare into the basket hungrily as we sit down and prepare our meal.

"We better take it slow on that stew. Remember the first night on the train? The rich food made me sick and I wasn't even starving then," I say, trying to remain sensible when every part of me wants to eat every bit of food in the basket right now.

"You're right," Katniss says sadly. "And I could just inhale the whole thing!"

We make our plates, with each of us getting a roll, half an apple, and a small serving of the stew. We both try to eat slowly, savoring every wonderous bite, and too soon, our plates are empty.

"I want more," Katniss says, groaning.

"Me, too," I admit. "Tell you what. We wait an hour, if it stays down, then we get another serving."

"Agreed. It's going to be a long hour," she says.

"Maybe not that long. What was that you were saying just before the food arrived? Something about me... no competition... best thing that ever happened to you..." I joke.

"I don't remember that last part," Katniss says, blushing.

"Oh, that's right. That's what I was thinking," I say, smiling. "Scoot over, I'm freezing."

I sit down next to Katniss in the sleeping bag, and I wrap my arms around her to keep her warm. She lays her head on my shoulder and we lean back against the wall of the cave.

"So, since we were five, you never even noticed any other girls?" she asks.

"No, I noticed just about every girl, but none of them made a lasting impression but you," I reply.

"I'm sure that would thrill your parents, you liking a girl from the Seam," she says, smirking.

"Hardly. But I couldn't care less. Anyway, if we make it back, you won't be a girl from the Seam, you'll be a girl from the Victor's Village."

The person who wins the Hunger Games each year gets to move to a nice part of their district called the Victor's Village. It is comprised of twelve very nice houses, meant for the victors to live in luxury while enjoying the large sum of money and food the victor receives.

"But then, our only neighbor will be Haymitch!" Katniss gasps.

"Ah, that'll be nice," I say, pulling Katniss closer to me. "You and me and Haymitch. Very cozy. Picnics, birthdays, long winter nights around the fire retelling old Hunger Games tales."

"I told you, he hates me!" she says, laughing.

"Only sometimes. When he's sober, I've never heard him say one negative thing about you," I say, shrugging.

"He's never sober!" Katniss says, rolling her eyes.

"That's right. Who am I thinking of? Oh, I know. It's Cinna who likes you. But that's mainly because you didn't try to run when he set you on fire. On the other hand, Haymitch... well, if I were you, I'd avoid Haymitch completely. He hates you," I say, grinning at her.

"I thought you said I was his favorite," she says.

"He hates me more. I don't think people in general are his sort of thing," I say.

Katniss smiles and gets that distant look on her face I've come to know so well. She's deep in thought, and as usual, I have no idea what she's thinking. After a few minutes, she frowns and looks at me. "How do you think he did it?"

"Who? Did what?" I ask, confused.

"Haymitch. How do you think he won the Games?" she asks.

Haymitch's Hunger Games was before I was born. It was the 50th Hunger Games, also called a Quarter Quell. Every 25 years there is a special circumstance included in the Hunger Games that adds to the horror. The second Quarter Quell, or the 50th Hunger Games, there were twice as many tributes. I've never seen Haymitch's Games on television, so I have no idea what happened in it or how he won. Then I realize something. He's smart. Very smart. I'm sure he wasn't always a drunk. Even after the alcohol has destroyed his brain, he's still pretty smart. There's no telling how smart he was when his brain was non-toxic.

"He outsmarted the others," I say after a few minutes.

Katniss nods, and lays her head back on my shoulder. We sit there together, huddled up against the cold, until we're both so hungry we can't wait any longer. Katniss gets up to fix our plates when the anthem begins. I go to the entrance and peek through the rocks to watch the sky, and I'm completely shocked to see whose face is in the sky.

"There won't be anything to see tonight. Nothing's happened or we would've heard a cannon," Katniss says distractedly.

"Katniss," I say quietly, turning to her.

"What? Should we split another roll, too?" she asks.

"Katniss," I repeat, stepping towards her.

She avoids my gaze. "I'm going to split one. But I'll save the cheese for tomorrow." She finally looks up at me. "What?"

"Thresh is dead," I say.

Katniss looks at me in disbelief. "He can't be."

"They must have fired the cannon during the thunder and we missed it," I say.

"Are you sure? I mean, it's pouring buckets out there. I don't know how you can see anything," she says, pushing me to the side so she can see for herself. She stares out at the sky for a few moments and then backs away from the wall slowly. She slumps down, sliding to the floor.

"You all right?" I ask her.

She shrugs. "It's just... if we didn't win... I wanted Thresh to. Because he let me go. And because of Rue."

"Yeah, I know. But this means we're one step closer to District Twelve," I say and push a plate into her hands. "Eat. It's still warm."

She takes a bite and chews slowly, with her eyes distant and almost teary-eyed. "It also means Cato will be back hunting us," she says.

"And he's got supplies again," I say.

"He'll be wounded, I bet," she says.

"What makes you say that?" I ask.

"Because Thresh would have never gone down without a fight. He's so strong, I mean, he was. And they were in his territory," she says.

"Good. The more wounded Cato is the better. I wonder how Foxface is making out," I say.

"Oh, she's fine. Probably be easier to catch Cato than her," she says.

"Maybe they'll catch each other and we can just go home. But we better be extra careful about the watches. I dozed off a few times," I say.

"Me, too," Katniss admits. "But not tonight."

I nod silently and we eat the rest of our food. When we finish, I notice how tired Katniss looks, so I volunteer to take the first watch. She doesn't argue and cuddles up under the sleeping bag, pulling it over her head. I'm sure she wants some privacy away from the cameras. Maybe she's grieving for Thresh.

I go to the entrance of the cave and breathe in the fresh air, hoping this will be over soon. I zone out, thinking about what my life is going to be like when the Games are over. I wonder how we're going to find Foxface, and how we're going to kill her. I hate thinking like that, but I need to get Katniss out of here alive. Cato is going to be our biggest challenge, because I'm still fairly weak from my injuries and Cato is very well-fed and very angry, which will make him even more deadly than he already is.

I feel like it's been a few hours, because the moon is high in the sky. I realize that I'm hungry again, which I resent because we need to save our food, but I'm not used to doing that. I find myself thinking about the basket of food, and my mouth starts watering. I can't stand the temptation any longer and go to the basket and get a roll, some goat cheese and apple slices. I make a small snack out of it and down it in a few minutes.

I decide to wake Katniss up with a snack for herself, because I'll feel bad eating more than her. I make her a roll with cheese, top it with some apple slices, and wake her up.

"Don't be mad. I had to eat again. Here's your half," I say, handing her the food I made for her.

"Oh, good," she says, immediately digging in. "Mm," she says, closing her eyes.

"We make a goat cheese and apple tart at the bakery," I say.

"Bet that's expensive," Katniss says.

"Too expensive for my family to eat. Unless it's gone very stale. Of course, practically everything we eat is stale," I say, shrugging. I'm overcome with fatigue and immediately lay down, pausing for a second to see what Katniss is thinking. She has her signature blank, distant stare, and I've given up on trying to figure out what she's thinking, so I close my eyes and immediately drift to sleep.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

I wake up to Katniss shaking my shoulder, and when my eyes focus on her, I can't help but pull her down and kiss her. It makes me the happiest person in the world knowing she cares about me too. After a while, she breaks away and awkwardly clears her throat.

"We're wasting hunting time," she says.

I look outside and see the rain has finally stopped, which is a relief because we can go out and get food now.

"I wouldn't call it wasting," I say, sitting up and stretching. "So do we hunt on empty stomachs to give us an edge?"

"Not us. We stuff ourselves to give us staying power," she says.

"Count me in," I say, and Katniss reaches for the food and surprisingly makes our meal with the rest of the stew and rice. "All this?"

"We'll earn it back today," Katniss says. We both eat quickly so we can get a start to our hunting day. Katniss starts wiping the rest of the gravy from the stew with her finger and I can't help but smile.

"I can feel Effie Trinket shuddering at my manners," she says.

"Hey, Effie, watch this!" I say, smiling. I throw my fork down and start licking my plate clean, making a lot of loud noises. I blow a kiss into the air and say to the cameras, wherever they are, "We miss you, Effie!"

Katniss bursts out laughing, and covers my mouth to try to stifle laughter. "Stop!" she says after getting her laughter somewhat under control. "Cato could be right outside our cave."

I move her hand off of my mouth. "What do I care? I've got you to protect me now," I say, pulling Katniss closer to me.

"Come on," she says, annoyed, pulling herself away. I quickly kiss her before she gets completely out of my grasp and she stands up. I get up too, and we pack our things and head out to begin hunting. Katniss hands me a knife since I lost all of my weapons after the tracker jacker incident.

"He'll be hunting us by now. Cato isn't one to wait for his prey to wander by," I say.

"If he's wounded-" Katniss starts to say.

"It won't matter," I interrupt. "If he can move, he's coming." Cato got some burns during the fireball attack, and that didn't stop him when he went after Katniss the first time. I'm sure he's looking for us, no matter how badly he got hurt when he went up against Thresh.

We go to the stream to replenish our water supply, and find that it's completely flooded from all of the rain. After our water bottles have been filled, Katniss leads me to where she set some snares the other day, but they're all empty. Not surprising, since all of the animals probably took shelter from the storm.

"If we want food, we better head back up to my old hunting grounds," she says.

"Your call. Just tell me what you need me to do," I say.

"Keep an eye out. Stay on the rocks as much as possible, no sense in leaving him tracks to follow. And listen for both of us," she says. I remember that she's deaf in her left ear now from blowing up the Careers' food supply, and I can't imagine how frustrating that must be for her. I know she hates relying on other people.

We walk beside the stream, following it into the woods. We pass the place where I had camouflaged myself into the ground, and I remember how close to death I was, and how Katniss brought me back to life, not only physically, but emotionally, too.

We're walking along in the woods when Katniss stops and turns around towards me.

"What?" I ask.

"You've got to move more quietly. Forget about Cato, you're chasing off every rabbit in a ten-mile radius," she says.

"Really?" I ask, feeling guilty. "Sorry, I didn't know." I was distracted, thinking about everything, and I didn't notice my walking was so loud. We begin walking again, and I try my best to walk quietly, but my leg is still very weak, so it's hard to keep complete control over the muscles, which are trying very hard to give out.

"Can you take your boots off?" Katniss asks, turning to me again.

"Here?" I ask, confused.

"Yes. I will, too. That way we'll both be quieter," she says, and we both take our boots and socks off and begin walking again along the stream. I think I'm being fairly quiet, but when I focus on the sound we're making, I notice Katniss is nearly silent. I don't know how she does it, then I remember that she's used to being in the woods.

We walk, and walk, and walk. It feels like a lifetime, and we haven't come up on a single animal the entire time. I know I must still be loud, and I decide I'd better back off if we want to have any food for today.

"Katniss. We need to split up. I know I'm chasing away the game," I say, stopping.

"Only because your leg's hurt," she says, turning to me, trying to come off as sympathetic, but I know she thinks I'm stomping or something.

"I know," I say, shrugging. "So, why don't you go on? Show me some plants to gather and that way we'll both be useful."

"Not if Cato comes and kills you," she says protectively. I can't help but laugh. She's only seen me at my weakest. She didn't see how capable I was before I got hurt.

"Look, I can handle Cato. I fought him before, didn't I?" I ask.

She pauses, thinking it over. "What if you climbed up in a tree and acted as a lookout while I hunted?"

I don't want to sit up in a tree. I want to help. I want to be useful. Besides, I don't think I could climb a tree with my leg.

"What if you show me what's edible around here and go get us some meat?" I say, mimicking the 'you're-a-damsel-in-distress' tone she just used on me. "Just don't go far, in case you need help."

She sighs, knowing I'm not going to give in, and shows me some edible roots that I can dig up. She teaches me a whistle that the mockingjays sing back to us so that if we need to signal one another for any reason, we have a dependable way to do it.

Katniss sets the pack down and goes off with her bow and arrows while I dig up the roots. Every once in a while, we'll use the bird whistle signal to let each other know we're okay. Once I've dug up plenty of roots, I explore a little and find a bush covered in some berries.

I pick a handful, thinking it could be a good snack for us to eat. I go back to where the pack is and get out a sheet of plastic, lay it out in the sun and set the berries on it. I head back down to the bush and start to pick more, and when I start to head back, I hear Katniss yelling for me. I make my way towards her, and then I see her aiming an arrow at my head.

She realizes that it's me and pulls her bow at the last second, sending the arrow into a nearby tree. I jump back and drop all of the berries that were in my hand.

"What are you doing? You're supposed to be here not running around in the woods!" Katniss snaps.

"I found some berries down by the stream," I say, confused.

"I whistled. Why didn't you whistle back?" she asks, still frustrated.

"I didn't hear. The water's too loud, I guess," I say. I walk over to her and put my hands on her shoulders to calm her down.

"I thought Cato killed you!" she says, almost too loudly.

"No, I'm fine," I say and wrap my arms around her, but she ignores me. "Katniss?"

She pushes away from me. "If two people agree on a signal, they stay in range. Because if one of them doesn't answer, they're in trouble, all right?"

"All right!" I say.

"All right. Because that's what happened with Rue, and I watched her die!" Katniss says and turns away from me. That shuts me up. I know that she cared about Rue, and I hate knowing she is so upset and there's nothing I can do for her.

"And you ate without me!" she says a few moments later.

"What? No, I didn't," I say, confused.

"Oh, and I suppose the apples ate the cheese," she says sarcastically. I look over at the food and I notice the cheese is slightly smaller than it was when we ate this morning.

"I don't know what ate the cheese, but it wasn't me. I've been down by the stream collecting berries. Would you care for some?" I say calmly.

She doesn't say anything, but goes over to where I dropped the berries. She leans down and picks a few up and rolls them between her fingers. Just then, a cannon fires. Katniss quickly turns to look at me, and I raise my eyebrows. Was it Foxface or Cato? We see the hovercraft appear and it picks up the body. As it is being raised, I catch a glimpse of red hair.

I immediately grab Katniss and push her towards a tree. Foxface is dead. We didn't do it, so that means Cato did. Her body was close to us, which means Cato is close.

"Climb. He'll be here in a second. We'll stand a better chance fighting him from above," I say urgently.

But instead of climbing, Katniss stops me and looks at me calmly. "No, Peeta, she's your kill, not Cato's."

"What? I haven't even seen her since the first day. How could I have killed her?"

She holds out the berries. "Right before I blew up the Careers' supplies, Foxface ran right through the booby trap like she had figured it out and grabbed a few things. I think that's been her game play. To steal what she needed to survive, but not enough to raise suspicion. My guess is that she's been following us, and took some of our food. And when she saw you pick those berries, she got some too. Since she thought we were about to eat them, she didn't think anything bad would happen if she ate them," she explains.

"I wonder how she found us. My fault, I guess, if I'm as loud as you say," I say guiltily.

"And she's very clever, Peeta. Well, she was. Until you outfoxed her," Katniss says.

"Not on purpose. Doesn't seem fair somehow. I mean, we would have both been dead, too, if she hadn't eaten the berries first," I say, then realize something. "No, of course, we wouldn't. You recognized them, didn't you?"

Katniss nods. "We call them nightlock."

"Even the name sounds deadly. I'm sorry, Katniss. I really thought they were the same ones you'd gathered," I say.

"Don't apologize. It just means we're one step closer to home, right?" she asks.

"I'll get rid of the rest," I say, picking up the plastic with berries on it and go to throw them into the woods.

"Wait!" Katniss says, pulling out a pouch and taking the berries from me. She puts the berries in the pouch. "If they fooled Foxface, maybe they can fool Cato as well. If he's chasing us or something, we can act like we accidentally drop the pouch and if he eats them-"

"Then hello District Twelve," I say.

"That's it," she says, putting the pouch on her belt.

"He'll know where we are now. If he was anywhere nearby and saw that hovercraft, he'll know we killed her and come after us," I say cautiously.

Katniss thinks for a moment and then takes on a look of determination. "Let's make a fire. Right now," she says, and begins to gather some brush and sticks to start it.

"Are you ready to face him?" I ask.

"I'm ready to eat. Better to cook our food while we have the chance. If he knows we're here, he knows. But he also knows there's two of us and probably assumes we were hunting Foxface. That means you're recovered. And the fire means we're not hiding, we're inviting him here. Would you show up?" Katniss asks.

"Maybe not," I say.

I help her collect the wood, and I get to work on starting the fire after we make a wood pile. Even though the wood is pretty damp, I get a fire started in just a few minutes. Katniss managed to get two rabbits and a squirrel, so she skins them and begins to cook them, along with the roots wrapped in some leaves, on some coals. We take turns gathering some plants to eat while listening and watching for any signs of Cato. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't show up. He knows he would be outnumbered, so I'm sure he wants us to come to him. He's probably out of the woods, at the Cornucopia.

We wait by the fire until our food is done, and Katniss packs all of it up but two rabbit legs, and we each eat one as we start to make our way to find somewhere to rest. Katniss is insisting that we climb a tree, and that we would be much safer. "If Cato comes by, I can take him out easily with an arrow," she says.

"I can't climb like you, Katniss, especially with my leg, and I don't think I could ever fall asleep fifty feet above the ground," I say, though I feel bad that I'm holding her back.

"It's not safe to stay in the open, Peeta," she insists.

"Can't we go back to the cave? It's near water and easy to defend," I suggest.

Katniss sighs, thinking about what she wants to do. After a few moments, she kisses me. "Sure. Let's go back to the cave."

Even though I feel bad that she won't be able to be where she wants, I'm so glad she is being so reasonable. "Well, that was easy." I say.

Katniss pulls the arrow she shot at me out of the tree it lodged in and then we put more wood on the fire to send off more smoke, hopefully drawing Cato out here. We begin our long journey back to our cave, and I'm being extra careful to walk quietly so if Cato does come out here, he won't hear us. When we get to the stream, which is a lot lower than it was this morning, Katniss suggests that we walk in it so we won't leave footprints and we can be significantly quieter. I agree, so we get into the stream and follow it all the way back to the cave.

The sun is setting by the time we finally reach the cave and we are both exhausted from hours of walking. We fill up our water bottles in the stream and go inside. Katniss gets out the food and fixes us a meal, but I can't even really eat because I'm so tired. Today is the most I've physically exerted myself since before Cato cut my leg, and it has drained every ounce of my energy and made my leg sore. Katniss makes me lie down, and almost immediately, I fall asleep, wondering how we're going to face Cato.

Katniss wakes me up by shaking my shoulder, and I'm surprised to see the sun is up.

"I slept the whole night. That's not fair, Katniss, you should have woken me," I say guiltily.

She lays down in the sleeping bag. "I'll sleep now. Wake me if anything interesting happens."

In a few minutes, she's asleep. I sit down at the entrance of the cave, realizing how close we are to going home. There are only three of us left. Today, we could win the Hunger Games, and I'm absolutely determined to win for Katniss.

I get lost in my own thoughts, and before I know it, it's afternoon and Katniss is waking up. "Any sign of our friend?" she asks.

I shake my head. "No, he's keeping a disturbingly low profile."

"How long do you think we'll have before the Gamemakers drive us together?" she asks.

"Well, Foxface died almost a day ago, so there's been plenty of time for the audience to place bets and get bored. I guess it could happen at any moment," I say.

"Yeah, I have a feeling today's the day," Katniss says, sitting up. "I wonder how they'll do it."

I don't answer because I don't want to think about it. The last time the Gamemakers intervened, we were almost all burned alive.

"Well, until they do, no sense in wasting a hunting day. But we should probably eat as much as we can hold just in case we run into trouble," Katniss suggests, and I don't argue. I pack up all of our stuff while Katniss lays out our meal. We eat the rest of the rabbit meat, some roots, greens and the rest of the rolls and cheese. She keeps the squirrel meat and the apple packed away, in case we get hungry before we can get more food.

After we're done eating and packing everything away, we walk out of the cave for the last time and head towards the stream to fill our water bottles and bathe. We both stop short when we see the stream, or what's left of it. Where there was a rushing flow of clear, cool water, there is now only a bone dry bed of dirt.

Katniss reaches down and feels it. "Not even a little damp. They must have drained it while we slept."

Our water bottles don't need to be filled right away, but it's pretty hot out here, so our water will be gone fairly quickly. I know the Gamemakers don't want us to die from something as boring as dehydration, and then a thought hits me.

"The lake. That's where they want us to go," I say.

"Maybe the ponds still have some," she replies.

"We can check," I say, but I know they will be as dry as the stream. We make the trip to one of the ponds Katniss came across, and sure enough, there's not a drop of water in it.

"You're right. They're driving us to the lake," she says uneasily. "Do you want to go straightaway or wait until the water's tapped out?"

"Let's go now, while we've had food and rest. Let's just go end this thing," I say, determined to leave this hell as soon as possible.

Katniss nods, and a sense of finality comes over me. This is it. This is the end of the 74th Hunger Games. When we go to the lake, Cato will be there waiting for us, and then we will fight, and either Cato will walk away victorious, or Katniss and I will.

I walk over to Katniss and wrap my arms around her, wanting more than anything to protect her from all of this, from all of the bloodshed. "Two against one. Should be a piece of cake," I say.

"Next time we eat, it will be in the Capitol," Katniss says reassuringly.

"You bet it will," I say, pulling her closer.

We stand wrapped in each other's arms for a while, enjoying our last few moments of peace before we have to end yet another innocent life for others' pleasure. After what doesn't feel like long enough, we end our embrace and make the journey towards the lake.

We stop at the tree where Katniss dropped the tracker jacker nest and rest for a while. I see what's left of the nest, and Katniss walks towards it and touches it with her boot, making it disintegrate into nothing but dust in the wind. I watch her carefully, studying her face, trying to see what she's thinking, but she's lost in her thoughts, staring at the trees around us, remembering something she doesn't want to talk about.

"Let's move on," she says suddenly, and I don't argue. I don't like the memories from this area either.

We finally reach the lake, but it's already evening, and it will be dark soon. I would rather fight Cato in daylight because I know how deadly he can be if he can't be seen. We look around, but Cato is nowhere in sight. We circle the Cornucopia, checking to make sure Cato isn't hidden somewhere, and when we don't see him, we go to the lake and fill up our water bottles, just like the Gamemakers wanted.

"We don't want to fight him after dark. There's only the one pair of glasses," Katniss says, frowning.

"Maybe that's what he's waiting for," I say while putting the iodine in the bottles. "What do you want to do? Go back to the cave?" I ask.

"Either that or find a tree. But let's give him another half an hour or so. Then we'll take cover," she says.

We sit out in the open next to the lake, waiting for Cato to show up. I don't want to go back to the cave or climb a tree. I want this to end tonight.

After sitting for a few minutes, I hear mockingjays in the trees. They are whistling a simple four-note tune, and I wonder where they heard it. I remember Katniss telling me about everything her and Rue did, and I realize the birds remember it from them signaling to each other.

"Just like your father," I say.

"That's Rue's song," Katniss says. "I think they remember it."

We sit in silence and listen to the beautiful melody of the birds. Over and over again they whistle, joyous and brilliant. Suddenly, the birds begin to stop. Unnaturally, suddenly, one by one, they stop whistling the melody and start shrieking in a panic.

Katniss and I jump up, weapons poised to attack. Just then, Cato comes barreling out of the trees, running like a maniac straight towards us. What is odd to me is that he is unarmed.

Katniss shoots an arrow, which hits him directly in the chest. But instead of it sinking into his body, it falls away and lands on the ground.

"He's got some kind of body armor!" Katniss shouts to me.

Just as she says this, he reaches us. Instead of attacking us, he runs right past us, like we aren't even there. He heads straight for the Cornucopia. Then I realize why he is running. Why he has no weapons in his hands. Why he ran right past us. Because he wasn't running towards us. He was running from something. And that something is tearing out of the woods and heading right towards all of us.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Katniss takes off, following Cato's lead and running towards the Cornucopia. I follow close behind, but my leg is still so weak that my distance behind Katniss is growing larger and larger. I look behind me and see multiple large beasts thundering towards us. They are definitely muttations, like the tracker jackers, but definitely much more deadly.

Katniss turns and sees how far behind I am and stops, sending an arrow into one of the mutts, but there are still plenty left to tear us apart.

"Go, Katniss! Go!" I yell, waving at her to go on.

She turns back around and starts to climb the Cornucopia, and I can see that Cato has managed to get to the top as well, but he is slumped over. I make it to the Cornucopia, and I can hear that the mutts are dangerously close to me.

"Climb!" Katniss yells, and I start to climb up the side, though my leg and the knife in my hand are making it a lot harder to climb as fast as I need to. Katniss tries to keep the mutts off by shooting an arrow into the pack, hitting one and sending it into a fit, attacking a few of the other mutts. I reach the top and Katniss grabs me and helps me up. She turns around to Cato, expecting him to attack, but he's still slumped over. He asks if the mutts can climb the Cornucopia, but with all of the growling from the mutts, I could barely make it out.

"What?" Katniss shouts.

"He said, 'Can they climb it?'" I say.

Katniss and I look down at the pack of mutts and see that they're joining together at the base of the Cornucopia, and begin to raise up onto their hind legs. Each mutt has a different colored coat and eyes. They each have collars on them, but I can't read what any of them say.

They sniff and lick the horn, scratching at it and barking to each other, obviously communicating, because they all back away from the Cornucopia to make some room and then one of the mutts runs and leaps towards us, but misses the top of the horn by about ten feet. It stays there for a moment, snarling at us, showing its razor-sharp teeth.

Katniss, who has had an arrow poised to shoot, screams and begins to shake. I look back down at the mutt, who has begun to slide back down the side of the Cornucopia. Katniss releases her arrow, hitting the mutt in the throat, and it releases its hold on the Cornucopia and falls to the ground twitching.

I grasp her arm. "Katniss?"

"It's her!" Katniss gasps.

"Who?" I ask.

She looks around at the pack of mutts, a look of horror and realization on her face.

"What is it, Katniss?" I ask, shaking her shoulder.

"It's them. It's all of them. The others. Rue and Foxface and... all of the other tributes," she says, horrified.

I gasp, realizing what she means. I can see the resemblances of each mutt to each fallen tribute. The mutt Katniss just killed, it had blonde fur and green eyes, like Glimmer. The smallest mutt has dark fur and large brown eyes, like Rue. A small one with red fur and amber colored eyes, like Foxface. A brown-colored one with bright blue eyes, just like Lenny.

"What did they do to them? You don't think... those could be their real eyes?" I ask in horror.

Before Katniss can answer, we notice the mutts have split into two groups on each side of us and begin to launch themselves towards us using their hind legs. I feel a horrible pain in my leg and I yell in pain before I'm forcefully yanked towards the ground. I grab Katniss' arm, and she uses all of her strength to hold onto me and keep me from being pulled to my death.

"Kill it, Peeta! Kill it!" Katniss screams, trying to hold on to me and the side of the Cornucopia. I realize my knife is still in my hand and blindly stab at the mutt who is clamped down on my leg. I feel its teeth release me, and Katniss pulls me back onto the top of the horn. Katniss looks at Cato, who has still not regained his strength, and then turns back towards the mutts. I look down at my leg, which is nearly torn to shreds. I try to put pressure on it, but then I feel someone grab me and put me in a headlock, cutting off my air supply. Katniss whips around, arrow loaded and ready to fly. I'm clawing at Cato's arm, trying to regain my ability to breathe, while still trying to staunch the heavy flow of blood from my leg.

Katniss aims the arrow at Cato's head, and he just laughs. "Shoot me and he goes down with me," Cato taunts.

I can feel myself getting light-headed, from the lack of oxygen and the blood loss. I focus all of my remaining energy into thinking of something to do, some way to get Cato off of me without both of us going over the side. I realize his hand isn't covered in the body armor he is wearing, and I raise my own blood-soaked hand to his and make an X on the back of his hand, signaling to Katniss to shoot his hand, which will make him let me go.

She poises her arrow after seeing my signal and shoots it straight into his hand. He yells and releases me. I immediately slam into him, sending us both backwards. Katniss lunges forward and catches me before I go over the edge, and we both watch as Cato slips on my blood and falls into the pack of mutts.

I hear his impact with the ground, and then the mutts tear into him. Katniss and I hold each other, waiting for Cato to be killed, waiting to hear the final cannon sound, signaling his death. The mutts are growling and snarling, and Cato is screaming in agony. Every once in a while, I hear an agonized cry come from one of the mutts, so Cato must be fighting back.

I hear the fight moving around the side of the Cornucopia, which means Cato must be trying to climb back onto the horn, but after about an hour of Cato fighting back and trying to climb, I hear him hit the ground again, and I'm guessing the mutts finally won, but there still isn't a cannon sound.

I hear the mutts dragging him into the Cornucopia, and they continue their onslaught of trying to tear Cato apart. The anthem plays, showing the nightly death toll, but there is no picture of Cato. He is still alive down there, only letting out a moan every now and then. I remember that he is wearing body armor, and I figure that is why they are having so much trouble killing him.

Katniss turns to me and checks my leg, which is still pouring out blood at an alarming rate. We don't have any of our supplies because we left our packs down by the lake. Katniss takes off her jacket and then removes her shirt. She puts her jacket back on and makes me lie down. She checks my wound more thoroughly, covering her hands in my blood. She cuts a sleeve from her shirt, wraps it around my leg above my wound and ties it. Then, she takes her last arrow and sets it in the knot, twisting it until she can't twist it anymore. After she's done placing the tourniquet, she bandages my leg with the rest of her shirt and lies down next to me.

"Don't go to sleep," she says worriedly.

"Are you cold?" I ask, unzipping my jacket. She presses against me and I zip the jacket back up around us.

"Cato may win this thing yet," Katniss whispers to me.

"Don't you believe it," I say, pulling up her hood, trying to keep her warm. I realize how much I'm shivering, and I try to stop. I don't want her to worry about me. I'm determined not to die.

We lie there, huddled together to keep warm, for hours. The wait is agonizing, and as the night goes on, the temperature drops lower and lower.

"Why don't they just kill him?" she asks.

"You know why," I say grimly, pulling her closer to me.

We continue to lie there, listening to the dying, agonized sounds coming from Cato, and I start to doze off. I know Katniss doesn't want me to go to sleep, but I'm so tired. Every time I start to fall asleep, Katniss says my name, making me wake back up. I know she's scared that if I fall asleep, I won't ever wake up. And every time she calls my name, it sounds further and further away.

More hours pass by, and there is still no cannon. I open my eyes and see that the sun has started to rise, and I tell Katniss. She opens her eyes and then looks over to me, a look of worry and alarm on her face. I must look pretty bad. I know I've lost a lot of blood, too much blood.

Katniss presses her ear to the horn to see if she can still hear Cato. We can barely hear him now, and I know he must be close to death. I can't help but feel sorry for him, dying this way.

"I think he's closer now. Katniss, can you shoot him?" I ask.

"My last arrow's in your tourniquet," she says.

"Make it count," I say, unzipping my jacket so she can get up.

She releases the arrow and ties the tourniquet back as tightly as she can. I look around and see that the top of the Cornucopia is covered in my blood, and I know that if Cato doesn't die soon, I will.

Katniss rubs her hands together and then gets her bow and arrow ready. She leans over the edge, and I hold onto her so she doesn't fall to the ground. I hear the release of the arrow, and I pull her back up.

"Did you get him?" I whisper.

As an answer, the cannon fires.

"Then we won, Katniss," I say, unable to feel happy about what has happened.

"Hurray for us," Katniss says in the same hollow tone.

The remaining mutts disappear into a hole that appears in the plain, and then the hole closes, leaving nothing but us and Cato's body. We wait for the hovercraft to get Cato's body, for the trumpets to sound, signaling our victory, but there is no hovercraft, no trumpets.

"Hey! What's going on?" Katniss shouts to the sky.

"Maybe it's the body. Maybe we have to move away from it," I suggest.

"Okay. Think you could make it to the lake?" she asks.

"Think I better try," I say, and we make our way down and fall to the ground. Katniss gets up and moves her arms and legs around, trying to restore some warmth and movement. Then she helps me up and we slowly walk over to the lake. She gets some water in her hand and puts it to my lips, then gets a handful for her.

A mockingjay whistles, and the hovercraft appears and takes Cato's body. I look over at Katniss, who has tears in her eyes. We wait for the announcement of our victory, but are greeted with silence.

"What are they waiting for?" I ask, barely holding onto consciousness.

"I don't know," Katniss says, worried. We both know that I don't have much time left, and my leg is bleeding profusely again, which gives me even less time. Katniss gets up to find a stick to redo my tourniquet, but instead finds the arrow she shot at Cato's chest, and then Claudius Templesmith's voice booms in the air.

"Greetings to the final contestants of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. The earlier revision has been revoked. Closer examination of the rule book has disclosed that only one winner may be allowed. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor," he says. Then there is only silence, his words hanging in the air.

I should've known they would never let two people walk out of here. This is a perfect ending for them. Letting two people who love each other think they can both leave here, then crushing their hope and making them fight each other.

"If you think about it, it's not that surprising," I say quietly. I slowly get to my feet and make my way towards her, reaching towards my knife so I can throw it into the lake. I will not kill her. I will not give them the satisfaction.

Suddenly, Katniss has an arrow poised right at my heart. I freeze, confused, and throw the knife into the lake. She drops her weapons and steps back, with a look of complete shame on her face.

"No. Do it," I say, limping towards her, picking up her bow and arrow and putting them back in her hands.

"I can't. I won't," she says, shaking her head.

"Do it. Before they send those mutts back or something. I don't want to die like Cato," I say.

"Then you shoot me," Katniss says angrily, shoving the weapons towards me. "You shoot me and go home and live with it!"

"You know I can't," I say, throwing the weapons to the ground. "Fine, I'll go first anyway," I say, leaning down and releasing the bandage from my leg. Nothing is keeping my leg from bleeding now, so the ground around me starts to get soaked in my blood.

"No, you can't kill yourself," Katniss says desperately, kneeling down to try to put the bandage back on.

"Katniss. It's what I want," I say softly.

"You're not leaving me here alone," she says.

"Listen," I say quietly, pulling her back to her feet. "We both know they have to have a victor. It can only be one of us. Please, take it. For me. I love you, Katniss. I have always loved you, and I will always love you. You have your family to go back to. If I go back without you, I won't have a purpose. I won't have anything. My family barely knows I exist. You are my reason for wanting to go home, and if I can't have you there, I don't want to be there. Katniss, let me do this. Let me die, so you can live," I plead, but I can tell she isn't listening.

Suddenly, she reaches for the pouch on her belt. The pouch with the nightlock berries. I grab her wrist. "No, I won't let you," I say.

"Trust me," she whispers. I look into her eyes, wondering what she's thinking. After a few moments, I realize what she is trying to do. I let go of her wrist and she opens the pouch. She pours a handful of berries into my hand, and a handful into her own. "On the count of three?" she says quietly.

I kiss her gently, taking a deep breath. "On the count of three."

We stand, back to back, our empty hands locked together.

"Hold them out. I want everyone to see," I say.

She squeezes my hand, and I hold on to her for dear life. If we can't go home together, then we won't go home at all.

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

We lift our hands up, and right after the berries slide into my mouth, a voice booms over us.

"Stop! Stop!" yells Claudius Templesmith frantically. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark! I give you-- the tributes of District Twelve!"


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

I immediately spit out the berries, making sure not to swallow any. I pull Katniss over to the lake and we wash out our mouths, then go straight into each other's arms. I realize I'm about to lose consciousness, but I focus all of my energy into staying awake as long as I can so Katniss doesn't have to see it when it happens.

"You didn't swallow any?" she asks me.

I shake my head. "You?"

"Guess I'd be dead by now if I did," she says.

"Katniss, we're going home," I sigh in relief, but she doesn't reply because the cheering crowd that they are playing overhead is deafening.

The hovercraft appears to take us out of the arena, dropping two ladders for each of us to grab on to. Katniss helps me walk over to one of the ladders and we both grab it, freezing us in place. I'm thankful to be frozen to the ladder, because I'm going in and out of consciousness. I can feel the blood pouring from my leg, and I know if the medics don't get to me fast, I won't make it. We get into the hovercraft, and immediately, everything fades to black.

Every once in a while, I catch a glimpse of the medical team before losing consciousness again. I try to focus on their words, but they are talking so fast, I can't keep up. I'm scared that I'm going to die. I lost a lot of blood. So much blood. I try to stay awake, but I can't. I slip into unconsciousness again, scared that I won't wake up.

I dream of many things. I dream of the arena, of Cato, of Lenny. But mostly, I dream of Katniss. I dream of her smile, her voice, her strength. I fall into an endless sequence of dreams, and sometimes, I realize that I'm asleep, and I try to wake up. But I can't, no matter how hard I fight. I keep trying, every second that I can.

Finally, after what feels like a lifetime, I slowly open my eyes. All I can see is white. After a few minutes, my eyes focus and I take in my surroundings. I'm in a hospital bed, with numerous tubes and bandages on my body. I realize that even though my wounds are still there, I am completely clean. I left the arena in a state of dirtiness that I've never experienced before. I thought I would never be completely clean again, but here I am, scrubbed to perfection. I remember the wound in my leg and decide I should look to see how bad the scar is going to be. I slowly sit up and move the cover off my legs and almost pass out again. Where there was once my mangled, bleeding leg, is now emptiness. From my knee down, my leg is gone.

I lay back down in disbelief, trying to understand what has happened. I lost my leg. They cut my leg off. It couldn't be saved. I only have one leg now. I keep repeating this over and over, trying to let it sink in. I stare at the ceiling, feeling grateful that I am alive, but overwhelmed at the loss of my limb.

The door to my room opens and an Avox comes in with a tray. He lifts my bed up so I am in a sitting position and sets the tray on my lap before leaving. The tray has a bowl of broth, some applesauce and a cup of water. I was hoping for more, but I know they must not want to over-indulge our stomachs when we have become used to eating so little. I gratefully eat my food and drink my water. When I am finished, the Avox comes in and takes my tray and leaves. I want to ask about Katniss, but I know I'm not allowed to talk to an Avox unless it is to give an order, and I'm probably being watched right now.

A few minutes after the Avox leaves, a man walks in. He's carrying something with him, but I can't really tell what it is.

"Hello, Peeta," the man says tentatively. "My name is Keaton, and I am going to fit you with a prosthetic leg, if that's okay."

"Prosthetic leg," I repeat.

"Yes. We will attach it to what's left of your left leg. I will help you learn how to use it, which will help you to walk and balance and even run," he says excitedly.

"Okay," I say, wondering how it's going to feel.

"I'm just going to fit this on you today. I took the measurements while you were still asleep, so it should fit like a glove," he says, walking over to what's left of my leg.

He slides the prosthetic on, strapping it in place. It feels so foreign, so wrong. He looks it over for a few minutes, then asks me to stand.

"Only if you feel like it," he says, looking at me with concern. I feel almost uncomfortable because he is being so concerned with how I'm feeling, unlike most people in the Capitol.

I slide to the edge of the bed and put weight on my legs. I feel a lot of pressure on my left thigh, and after a few seconds, I can't take the feeling anymore. I can't stand to feel what used to be my leg, to now be metal and plastic.

"I want to sit back down," I say, and he helps me back into bed.

"That's okay. We'll work a little more each day to help you get used to standing, then walking. I'll let you rest now. I'll see you tomorrow," he says, removing the prosthetic and leaving my room.

I look down at the stump of flesh that is left of my leg. I reach out and touch the end of it, the unfamiliar feeling sending an uncomfortable shiver through me. I can't help but think of Katniss, how she is going to feel like this is her fault for using the tourniquet, though I don't blame her at all. She saved my life. Sure, I wouldn't have lost my leg if she wouldn't have used the tourniquet, but I would've lost my life.

Over the next few days, Keaton helps me learn how to function with my new leg. First, we work on standing. Little by little I am told to stand longer and longer, then after I have mastered that, I learn how to walk. I'm not really good with balancing yet, so I have to use a cane to help compensate for my lack of balance. I learned the hard way how much I have to re-learn with balance, because I fell quite a few times trying to stand up. It is so strange having to learn how to walk all over again, especially with a leg that isn't really my own.

Each walk gets longer and longer, and eventually, I can walk with only a slight limp. The first few walks I took really wore me out and made me feel defeated and frustrated that I am 16 years old learning how to walk, but I forced myself to stay determined.

"Okay, today we're going to walk for an hour. If you can do that without any complications, then you're going to be good to go and I'll be able to sign off on you, okay?" Keaton explains as I strap the leg on.

"I can do it," I murmur, and I stand up, now familiar with my thigh meeting my new leg. I push my new leg forward with my thigh muscles and it obeys by moving forward in front of my right leg. I take another step, this time with my good leg, which is the hardest part of walking because for a second, all of my weight goes onto my prosthetic, but my right foot lands on the ground in front of my left one, and I keep going, like a rhythm. Left leg, right leg, left leg, right leg. For an hour, I walk the corridors of the hospital, looking around like I always do to try to see Katniss.

When I asked a nurse about Katniss, she told me that she was being unruly by trying to get out of bed before she's ready to and had to be kept unconscious with a sedative. It makes sense to me that she is trying to get out of the bed, but I know it's only because she wants to see her family, and hopefully wants to see me. I haven't seen her since the arena, and I really want to tell her about my leg myself so she doesn't hear it from someone else, but I can never find her.

We circle back to my room, and Keaton sighs.

"You've done so well, Peeta. I am so proud to have been a part of your recovery," Keaton says, bowing before leaving me alone in my room. I'm allowed to take my leg off whenever I want to, but I decide to keep it on, because I don't like seeing only one leg on my body.

I lay down in bed, slightly out of breath from the walk, and I doze off, wondering if Katniss has stopped fighting the doctors so she can get out of bed and see her family and me.

I'm woken up by my stylist, Portia.

"Oh, Peeta," she whispers, embracing me.

"Hey, Portia," I say, smiling. I didn't meet many people from the Capitol, but out of the few I met, Portia is my favorite.

"They sent me in here to help you get dressed, in case you can't do it yourself because of your..." Portia drifts off, looking down at my leg.

"Okay, thank you. I haven't tried to dress myself since my leg got cut off, so I'm glad they sent you in," I say, trying to stay positive for her.

She hands me the outfit that I have to put on, and I'm surprised to see that it is the same outfit we wore for training.

"I know this probably isn't exactly the perfect outfit, but you won't be in it for long. You just have to wear it long enough so we can get you to the prep team, okay?" she says.

I nod and take off the hospital gown. Portia stands close by in case I lose my balance. Surprisingly, I get the clothes on pretty easily, and I felt pretty sturdy while doing it, even though I did have to use the cane. I haven't been able to stand or walk without it yet, but I figured it's better than not being able to stand or walk at all.

"Okay, let's get you ready for the replay of the Games," Portia says, leading the way out of my room.

That's right, Caesar Flickerman hosts a replaying of the Games each year, with the victor sitting on stage and watching it along with the citizens of Panem. That means I'll get to see Katniss soon, which makes me forget about my leg. I take a deep breath and follow Portia into the elevator, and we silently ride. I don't pay attention to what floor we get off of; I can only think about how excited I am to see Katniss.

My prep team is standing in the room waiting for me, and when I step off the elevator, they start applauding and cheering.

"We knew you would win. We just KNEW it!" Amelie squeals.

The other two agree, nodding and smiling from ear to ear. "Here, they brought you some food!" Carlin exclaims, pointing to a plate of roast beef and potatoes, and I thankfully gulp it down, savoring every bite. One thing I took away from the Games is that I will never take another bite of food or drink of water for granted.

When I finish eating, Finian helps me into a bath. I want to take a shower, but I haven't mastered standing without my prosthetic yet, so a bath is my only option. I get scrubbed from head to toe for what feels like hours. My skin is raw, but it looks flawless. All of my wounds are gone and I am practically glowing.

The prep team watches me nervously as I put my leg back on.

"It's okay," I say, patting the leg. "Gives me some character, right?"

They laugh nervously, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

I roll my eyes and laugh. They must not have been around someone with a fake leg before. I haven't either since District 12 is too poor to afford anything as extravagent as a prosthetic, so if someone loses a limb, they have to learn how to function without it at all, but I'm pretty familiar with it now since it's become a part of my life.

Amelie hands me a simple outfit of a yellow long sleeve shirt and black slacks with black boots.

"Ooh, so handsome!" the prep team coos, and I can't help but smile. I can't imagine how beautiful Katniss is going to look. I take a deep breath and stare at myself in the mirror. With the pants on, you can't tell I only have one real leg.

Just then, Haymitch and Effie come into the room.

"Ah, Peeta! Such a handsome man," Effie trills as she embraces me.

"Good job, kid," Haymitch says, patting my back. "Let's go talk."

I follow him into the bathroom and he shuts the door.

"I'm sorry about your leg, kid," he says and then surprisingly, he hugs me. "You two did good. Really good. I'm sorry you had to do it, but I'm glad you're both here."

He clears his throat. "Okay. That's enough of that," Haymitch says, then leaves the room.

I've never seen Haymitch care like that. It was weird, but strangely, it really cheered me up. I look down at my legs and for the first time, I feel okay with how things turned out.

I take a deep breath and go back to my prep team. They do some finishing touches with makeup and then Portia takes me to a small room and onto a metal pedestal.

"This will lift you onto the stage. Good luck, Peeta," she says, giving me a quick hug before going and taking her own place since everyone involved in our team gets to be featured. Both of our prep teams, Effie, Cinna, Portia and Haymitch all get to take the stage for their moment of recognition for helping us get to where we are now.

I stand on the platform, waiting to be lifted on the stage. My hand is sore from having to use the cane, but I know I'll fall if I don't use it, so I try to ignore the pain.

After a few minutes, I hear the anthem, Caesar Flickerman greeting everyone, and then applause from the audience as everyone that goes on stage is introduced. First, the prep teams. Then Effie. Then Cinna and Portia. Then Haymitch, who gets feet stomping and screaming as well as thundering applause.

After the applause begins to die down, my pedestal begins to lift me onto the stage. After a few moments of darkness, there I am, on the brightly lit stage in front of all of the citizens of the Capitol, and on television for all of Panem to see. I glance over and see Katniss, who looks absolutely stunning in a simple yellow dress. I wonder why Cinna has decided to portray her in such an innocent outfit, but I don't have time to dwell on the thought, because as soon as we lay eyes on each other, we come together for the first time since the arena and embrace each other as though we've known each other for a lifetime.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Katniss embraces me so hard that it almost knocks me over, but I regain balance using my cane. I see that she's noticed it, and I wonder if anyone has told her about my leg yet, but I shake my head, pushing all thoughts out of my mind except for how happy I am to see her. I press my lips to hers, trying to convey my every word and thought to her, ignoring the screaming audience and the cameras. In this moment, it is just her and me. We're not in the arena anymore, we're not fighting for our lives. We're out, we won. And in this moment, I fall in love with her all over again. She fought not only for herself, but for me, and we made it out.

Caesar walks over to us and taps on my shoulder, signaling that we should probably start the recap, but I just shove him away. I don't want to relive the Games, not yet. I want this moment with Katniss to last forever.

After a few more moments of kissing and hugging, Haymitch comes and playfully shoves us towards the victor's chair, or rather victor's couch. It's usually a chair, but since there are two winners this year, they got an overly red small couch for us to sit on while we watch the replay of the Games. Katniss and I walk over to the couch and sit down. She nearly sits in my lap, her body right up against mine, and then she kicks off her shoes, pulls her legs under her and rests her head on my shoulder. I wish the people and cameras were gone, so we could just sit together like this wordlessly, but Caesar pulls me out of my serene thoughts.

"Geez, guys, get a room," Caesar guffaws, and the audience howls in laughter. He cracks a few more jokes about our public display of affection and then dives right into the action of the replaying of the 74th annual Hunger Games. This whole thing lasts for three grueling hours, and everyone in Panem is required to watch it. As the lights dim and the replay starts, I find that my heart has begun to race and I realize how much I don't want to watch this.

The video mainly focuses on Katniss and me, and shows our separate journeys and our journey together when Katniss finds me. It shows the reaping, the chariots, training scores and interviews. Next, it shows the arena at the beginning of the Games, or what everyone calls the bloodbath. It shows the deaths of the tributes during that time and shots of Katniss and me. It shows her fighting over the backpack and using it as a shield against Clove's knife. Katniss is so brave. I look like a coward running into the woods.

It shows Katniss' journey, which is an incredible one. She was in the fireball attack too, and she worked so hard to saw through that tree branch with the tracker jacker nest in it, even with the burns on her hands. It shows her and Rue teaming up, and I also see where she blew up the Careers' supplies, which is when she became deaf in one of her ears. It shows Rue's death and it shows Katniss killing Marvel. Then, she holds Rue in her arms until she dies, singing a sweet, soft song to her in her last moments.

It shows my journey as well, and I'm glad that Katniss can see I was never trying to go against her. I did everything for her. Allying with the Careers, staying awake when we had her stuck in a tree, and fighting Cato so that she could get away after she dropped the tracker jacker nest on us. They didn't show me getting the crap beat out of me by Cato when I first approached him and the other Careers, which strikes me as odd, but I figure they didn't want to show me saying such hateful things about Katniss since they are trying to portray a love story.

After it shows our separate experiences, it shows them announcing there can be two winners if they are from the same district, and it shows Katniss saying my name, which makes me smile. She wanted me to be okay, to win with her. It shows her looking for me, nearly stepping on me, and then nursing me back to health, which I don't remember very clearly because of how close to dying I was. They make sure to include every kiss we shared in the arena.

Then, it shows the end of the Games, where we were about to eat the nightlock berries. Everyone in the audience stops talking, hanging onto every second, and then the video cuts to Katniss banging on a glass door, frantically yelling my name. That must have been on the hovercraft after I passed out.

I look over at Katniss, who looks like she is going to break. I can tell she's trying so hard to put on a brave face, but I know she is broken. What happened in the arena has changed this girl that I love.

The video ends, and everyone is on their feet, screaming and applauding for us, their precious victors. Caesar says good night to the audience and cameras, and reminds everyone to watch our interview tomorrow, which is an unnecessary thing to say, since our victor interview is required viewing for all of Panem.

We are escorted off stage, and then we are taken to President Snow's mansion for the Victory Banquet, where important Capitol citizens will be there to congratulate us and brag about how they sponsored us and how much they were rooting for us. Even though we were in the Games, I'm sure they will turn it into something about them. That's what the people in the Capitol do.

I put on a polite facade, thanking people and shaking their hands and nodding as they tell me all about their lives, all the while keeping Katniss' hand entwined in mine. I'm determined to never let go of her again. After seeing what she had to go through in the Games, it makes me feel like I had it easy. I wish I would've been there with her the whole time, and I hate that she had to be alone for so long.

After the banquet, we are taken back to the training center. We take the elevator to the twelfth floor, and when we get off, Haymitch tells me to go with Portia to get my outfit fitted for the interview tomorrow. I look to Katniss, who looks upset that I have to go. I go with Portia, who leads me to my bedroom.

"Sorry, Peeta. I know you must be exhausted, so I'm going to do this as fast as I can, okay?" she says apologetically.

I nod and she hands me the outfit, which I quickly put on. She measures, pins, and sews until she is happy with how it fits. She helps me take it off and then quickly leaves the room. I want to see Katniss and spend some time with her alone, with no Capitol and no cameras watching, so we can finally talk freely without everyone's eyes on us, but my bedroom door has been locked from the outside. I'm confused as to why they want to keep me in the room, but I'm too tired to argue with it. I slide into bed, grateful to be clean and in an actual bed, and I immediately drift into dreams of Katniss and those beautiful grey eyes.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

I get woken up by Effie tapping on my door, reminding me that it is a big, big, big day. She thinks every day is a big, big, big day, I swear. But today is the victor's interview, which will take place in the sitting room of our floor on the training center. I order a quick breakfast of hot grain to my room, and after I finish it, my prep team barges in.

"Let's get you looking handsome!" shrills Finian.

I nod and they immediately help me into a bath, scrubbing me yet again, even though I'm sure I can't get any shinier than I already am. They lotion me, put makeup on me, and style my hair until I look like a perfect little puppet. They put on my red and white outfit that Portia fitted me with last night, and I do admit, I look dashing. After final touches, I am led into the sitting room where cameras are already being set up. Caesar Flickerman is standing nearby, reading over some cards. The set looks beautiful. Our love seat has been moved to the middle of the room and it is being surrounded by hundreds of red and pink roses.

I see Katniss standing next to Caesar, and I walk over to her, pulling her away from everyone.

"I hardly get to see you. Haymitch seems bent on keeping us apart," I say.

"Yes, he's gotten very responsible lately," she shrugs, distracted.

"Well, there's just this and we go home. Then he can't watch us all the time," I say, smiling.

She frowns a little, but before she can reply, we are called to take our places on the love seat. We sit down, and Caesar frowns. "Oh, go ahead and curl up next to him if you want. It looked very sweet."

Katniss pulls her feet up like she did yesterday and cuddles up next to me, which makes me smile, and I put my arm around her and pull her closer. God, I love this girl.

Someone counts back from five, and then the cameras start rolling.

"Caesar Flickerman here, with the world's CUTEST couple!" he gushes, motioning over to us. "You two are so cute, I could just eat you up!"

I smile politely and Katniss tries to smile pleasantly, but I can tell she's ready for this to be over.

"So, let's get to it. How does it feel to be victors?" Caesar asks, crossing his legs.

"I'm so grateful that I got to come out of this as a victor, but more so, I am grateful that Katniss is here with me. I mean, she saved my butt in there," I joke, smiling.

"Katniss, how do you feel?" Caesar asks her.

"I couldn't have done it without Peeta," she says, looking over at me.

"Oh, you two. So modest," Caesar says with a wave of dismissal. "You were both wonderful! I was rooting for the both of you ever since we heard that announcement!"

"I'm sure a lot of people wanted us to win. I mean, did you see how extravagant our sponsor gifts were? That lamb stew was a literal life-saver!" I say, laying on the banter thick, so that he stays focused on me because I know Katniss doesn't want to talk.

Caesar laughs. "Oh, Peeta, you are something else!"

After a few moments, he wipes tears from his eyes and calms his laughter. "Well, Peeta, we know, from our days in the cave, that it was love at first sight for you from what, age five?"

"From the moment I laid eyes on her," I say.

"But, Katniss, what a ride for you. I think the real excitement for the audience was watching you fall for him. When did you realize you were in love with him?" Caesar asks.

"Oh, that's a hard one..." Katniss trails off, laughing nervously and looking down at her hands.

"Well, I know when it hit me. The night when you shouted out his name from that tree," Caesar says, clearly trying to help her out.

"Yes, I guess that was it. I mean, until that point, I just tried not to think about what my feelings might be, honestly, because it was so confusing and it only made things worse if I actually cared about him. But then, in the tree, everything changed," she says.

"Why do you think that was?" Caesar asks, practically begging for every detail of our love story.

"Maybe... because for the first time... there was a chance I could keep him," she says shyly.

Caesar takes a moment to wipe his tears away because he is so moved. I press my forehead against her temple, wanting so badly to kiss her. "So now that you've got me, what are you going to do with me?" I ask her quietly.

"Put you somewhere you can't get hurt," she says, turning to me. I immediately kiss her because I can't resist when I look into those eyes of hers.

"Speaking of getting hurt, let's talk about the loooong list of wounds you two incurred during your time in the arena, shall we?" Caesar asks. Oh no, my leg.

He quickly talks about the burns and the cuts, but then we get to when the mutt bit my leg.

"So, Peeta, how is your new leg working out? I assume you've been working hard to get used to it?" he asks.

I look over at Katniss, who looks like someone just punched her in the face. "New leg?" she asks, reaching over and pulling my pant leg up, revealing my prosthetic. "Oh, no," she whispers in horror.

"No one told you?" Caesar asks with a hint of remorse for being the one to break the news to her.

"I haven't had the chance," I say, shrugging guiltily.

"It's my fault. Because I used that tourniquet," she says.

"Yes, it's your fault I'm alive," I say sarcastically.

"He's right. He'd have bled to death for sure without it," Caesar says, trying to help me convince this stubborn girl that it is not her fault.

Katniss looks like she is going to burst into tears, and then she buries her face in my shirt, trying to hide from all of the cameras and people.

"Katniss," I say softly, rubbing her hair. "Katniss, it's okay."

"Katniss, this isn't your fault," Caesar interjects, but I know she isn't going to listen to anyone, so I just keep rubbing her hair until she finally decides to sit back up.

"So, Peeta," Caesar continues, "How was it getting used to this new leg?"

"It was definitely hard to have to learn to stand and walk again," I say, glancing over to Katniss who doesn't appear to be listening. My beautiful girl is lost in her own thoughts again.

Caesar keeps the questions pointed towards me, probably to give Katniss time to recover from finding out about my leg. When he gets to the berries, Katniss stiffens.

"Katniss, I know you've had a shock, but I've got to ask. The moment when you pulled out those berries. What was going on in your mind... hm?" he asks.

After a long pause, she finally answers. "I don't know, I just... couldn't bear the thought of... being without him."

"Peeta? Anything to add?" Caesar asks me.

"No. I think that goes for both of us," I say, pulling Katniss closer to me and kissing her forehead.

"Well, folks, we'd better let our victors get home and settled in the Victor's Village, so unfortunately I have to end this interview. Ladies and gentlemen, our victors of the the 74th annual Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark," he says, with a ridiculously big grin on his face.

The cameras turn off and everyone is hugging and clapping. After all of the congratulations, I walk Katniss to her room so she can get her things. I don't have anything I want to take. After this experience, I'm not who I used to be. I am starting fresh, so all I need is Katniss. After she comes out with her mockingjay pin, we are whisked around so we can get to the train station on time. We quickly say goodbye to Cinna and Portia, then we are led to the station, put aboard our train, and in a few minutes we are on our way home.

Once on the train, we have an extravagant dinner to celebrate. Haymitch and Effie are on the train with us. Haymitch lives in the Victor's Village in District 12, but Effie will travel back to the Capitol after we are home. After dinner, Katniss excuses herself, and a few minutes later, she comes back without the makeup and dress, and she looks like the Katniss I grew up with. We sit together on the couch and watch the replaying of our interview. I put my arm around her, but she seems distant.

We are free to do what we want on the train, so I mostly try to spend my time with Katniss, but she continues to be distant, lost in her thoughts. The train stops for fuel, and we are allowed off the train for a few minutes. Katniss and I get off together, walking hand in hand, and when I see a bunch of wildflowers, I stop and pick some for her. I hand them to her, and she tries to put on a smile, but I can tell something is bothering her.

"What's wrong?" I ask, frowning.

"Nothing," she shrugs.

We continue to walk along the track, past the train, but she remains silent. Haymitch comes up behind us a few minutes later, putting his hands on our backs.

"Great job, you two. Just keep it up in the district until the cameras are gone. We should be okay," he says, then he heads back to the train.

I look over to Katniss, who is purposefully avoiding my gaze.

"What's he mean?" I ask her.

"It's the Capitol. They didn't like our stunt with the berries," Katniss explains.

"What? What are you talking about?" I ask, confused.

"It seemed too rebellious. So, Haymitch has been coaching me through the last few days. So I didn't make it worse," she says.

"Coaching you? But not me," I say, frowning.

"He knew you were smart enough to get it right," she says.

"I didn't know there was anything to get right," I say. "So, what you're saying is, these last few days and then I guess... back in the arena... that was just some strategy you two worked out."

"No. I mean, I couldn't even talk to him in the arena, could I?" she says, but I realize something.

"But you knew what he wanted you to do, didn't you?" I say, starting to piece everything together.

Katniss just bites her lip.

"Katniss?" I say sadly, and I drop her hand.

"It was all for the Games. How you acted," I say, finally realizing what has been going on. It was all a lie.

"Not all of it," she says, sadness in her eyes.

"Then how much? No, forget that. I guess the real question is what's going to be left when we get home?" I ask, taking a step back from her. I can't believe that this is happening.

"I don't know. The closer we get to District Twelve, the more confused I get," she says. I stand there, staring into those grey eyes, silently begging for something more, something better than what I'm hearing, but she stays silent.

"Well, let me know when you work it out," I say, feeling my heart breaking in my chest. I turn away from the love of my life, and I walk away. All of what I thought was her falling in love with me was just a survival strategy. She never actually loved me. Those kisses meant nothing. All of the things she said about not being able to live without me was nothing but a strategy she had worked out with Haymitch. My heart hurts too much to be able to function, so I go straight to my room and lay in bed until we get home.

When the train pulls into District 12, I come out of my room. When I see Katniss, I give her an emotionless head nod, because I'm not letting her have another second of my love.

We stand next to each other, staring out the window, watching as District 12's train station comes into view. I remember that we have to keep up the act of being in love for the cameras, so I extend my hand out to her. She looks at my hand, then at me, and seeing those grey eyes look into mine makes me fall in love with her all over again, which also breaks my heart all over again.

"One more time? For the audience?" I say as coldly as I can manage, trying to keep it together.

She takes my hand, squeezing it tightly, and it takes everything I have not to let her hand go. Because every second I hold onto this beautiful girl's hand, the more I break. By the time I finally let her hand go, I am broken into a million pieces.

END OF BOOK ONE


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